James Oglethorpe arrived at Augusta on September 12, 1739, 277 years ago today.
French troops arrived near Savannah to prepare for a siege against British forces there on September 12, 1779.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Join Newt Gingrich at a Town Hall Meeting for Donald J. Trump today at noon at Kennesaw State University.
On Saturday, September 17th, the Trump-Pence campaign will hold a grand opening of its Sandy Springs Headquarters.
“The Trump-Pence campaign in Georgia is firing on all cylinders and driving towards a November victory. We are excited to have this base of operations from which to spread Donald Trump’s message of economic prosperity, job growth, fiscal responsibility, a strong military, and secure borders,” said Brandon Phillips, the Trump Campaign’s Georgia State Director.
“The evidence that Hillary Clinton is completely unfit to serve as President of the United States and Commander in Chief mounts by the day, with her misuse of classified emails on her homebrew server and her pay-to-play scheme where she traded official State Department access for donation to the Clinton foundation from foreign agents. Georgia voters understand that Hillary Clinton represents a third Obama term and they are looking for change in November,” Phillips said
The office is open Monday-Saturday from 9am-9pm and Sundays from 1pm-8pm. To contact the office directly, please call 678.888.4872 or email at info.ga@donaldtrump.com. If you’re looking to help the Trump-Pence campaign, it sounds like their office is open, it’s just not Grand Open. Get in touch today to help.
On Saturday, the Brunswick-Glynn County Trump campaign office opened.
The Trump-Pence Augusta/12th District Headquarters is located at is 247 Bobby Jones Expressway and will be open on Friday, September 16th with an event from 5-7 PM. A privately-owned and decorated Trump Bus made appearances in Augusta this weekend.
It’s almost worth moving to Augusta to be able to vote at the new precinct located on Ronald Reagan Drive.
According to elections director Nancy Gay, early voting will be held in building G3 at 610 Ronald Reagan Dr. and not in the elections office as years past.
The new building will be open for early voting only from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. beginning Oct. 17 through Nov. 4.
Gay stressed that no early voting will be held at the board of elections office this year.
In addition to the new early voting location, Patriots Park and Stevens Creek Community Church will also be open for Saturday advance voting on Oct. 29 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
For the final week of voting, both Patriots Park, located at 5445 Columbia Road and Stevens Creek Community Church at 600 Stevens Creek Road will be open for advance voting from Oct. 31 through Nov. 4 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
The AJC spoke to Merle King, Director of the Georgia Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University about the state’s voting machines.
Many of the more than 27,000 voting machines in Georgia are at least 13 years old. Georgia’s Merle King, however, said voters should have no doubt the state’s machines are maintained well and in good working order. King, who is the executive director of the state’s election systems center, said a statewide review last year found that about 98 percent of the machines were available and ready to go. Repairs in each of the past 10 years or so have affected only about 1 percent of machines in the state annually.
The state buys refurbished parts sold by other public agencies or third-party vendors. Everything gets tested by the center before it’s allowed back in the field. That includes the operating software used to run the machines, which is circa Windows 2000 — software no longer supported by Microsoft.
The machines could work on a newer operating system, King said, but making changes would violate federal certification for Georgia’s entire elections system.
King, however, downplayed any threat to the system because the machines are self-contained and never connected to the internet — not during testing, and not during an election. The machines are also required to be kept under lock and key. Access to them is limited when they are not in use for voting, with plastic seals affixed to the machines.
Republican Chris Hunnicutt was the sole candidate qualifying for a Colquitt County Commission.
A resident of the district could still qualify as a write-in candidate over a seven-day period that began at noon Thursday and ends a week later, said Probate Court Judge Wes Lewis, whose office oversees county elections.
Barring a candidate qualifying as a write in, Hunnicutt could be sworn in at the end of the seven days.
[Winfred] Giddens, the District 2 commissioner, died Aug. 27. His term was to expire Dec. 31, and he was not seeking a third term in office.
Voters were already set to choose Nov. 8 between Hunnicutt, a farmer, and retiree Ronald McMullen, the Democratic candidate. The winner of that contest will take the District 2 seat in January.
Georgia cannot require proof of U.S. Citizenship to register to vote after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit enjoined laws in Georgia, Kansas, and Alabama.
“With just weeks to go before a critical presidential election, we are grateful to the court of appeals for stopping this thinly veiled discrimination in its tracks,” Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters, which had sued to block the new requirements, said in a statement.
The Appeals Court of the District of Columbia said the League of Women Voters had shown there would be irreparable harm if the rule was permitted, and had also shown it was likely to win the case on its merits.
It ordered any voter applications filed since Jan. 29, 2016, to be treated as if they did not contain the proof of citizenship instructions.
Alabama and Georgia, which passed provisions several years ago, have not implemented their laws while at least 20,000 voters in Kansas, where the law took effect in 2013, have been blocked from registering to vote, the League’s lawyers say.
State Senator Renee Unterman (R-Buford) spoke to the Gwinnett County Republican Party on Saturday about Constitutional Amendment #2, which will create and fund the Georgia Safe Harbor Commission to provide restorative services to children who have been exploited. Learn more at the SafeHarborYes website or watch her speech on Facebook.
The Gwinnett County Republican Party is asking for volunteers to help man their booth at the Gwinnett County Fair, which opens Thursday and runs through September 25th.
Republicans can look for open slots to volunteer for at www.gwinnettrepublicans.com/calendar.
The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in Braselton this week.
The city announced the court has accepted an invitation to hear three cases in Braselton’s municipal courtroom from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday to help the town celebrate its centennial. The cases will be heard by a three-judge panel made up of presiding Judge John J. Ellington, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch and Judge Amanda J. Mercier.
Ellington, a UGA Law School graduate, was appointed to the bench by Gov. Roy Barnes while Branch, an Emory Law School graduate, and Mercier, a Syracuse University College of Law graduate, were appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal.
“The Court of Appeals will sit in only two cities outside Atlanta this year, so it’s a high honor to host them on behalf of our citizens,” Mayor Bill Orr said in a statement.
Residents will be allowed to sit in court and hear attorneys argue the cases, but Braselton officials are asking that residents stay for only one case because of space concerns. Each case is expected to take about an hour for the judges and attorneys to get through.
On Friday, Georgia Republican Party First Vice Chair Michael McNeely wrote on Facebook that he will run for Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party next year.
I have been asked several times this week whether I intend to run for Chairman of the Georgia GOP. I’m not one to be coy about something that important, so I wanted to put the question to rest. I believe I have a good understanding of the needs of our party and solid ideas for laying out a strong vision. For those reasons I do plan to run for Chairman in 2017.
That said, I believe the focus should remain on getting Republicans elected at all levels in November, and that will be my relentless focus all the way through Election Day. Once we’re celebrating victory, I’ll be ready to start the conversation about the future of our party.
Opportunity School District Amendment
Three additional school boards have formally opposed the Opportunity School District.
Forsyth County Board of Education unanimously opposed the OSD Amendment.
They are expected to issue the formal resolution to oppose the plan Thursday, Sept. 15, at the board’s monthly public meeting.
Though none of the 37 public school in Forsyth County would likely be affected given their high performance, board members said they felt it important to articulate why this law would be detrimental to the state and what ramifications it could have down the road.
“I think it’s setting a very bad precedent,” said District 1 board member Ann Crow. “A lot of things in [the plan] are not defined. What does ‘failing’ mean? That could change with the governor’s administration, and on and on.”
“Less government is better,” she added. “It’s always better at the local level, and I do not think this amendment will help education as a whole in Georgia. We don’t know what this could open the door to in the future, and that’s what bothers me.”
Also formalizing their opposition was the Rockdale County Board of Education.
The Rockdale County Board of Education is opposing the creation of the state-run school district proposed by Gov. Nathan Deal.
None of the schools in Rockdale falls under that category.
Rockdale County Public Schools Superintendent Richard Autry presented various facts about OSD at the meeting and highlighted three main issues that have concerned officials statewide including the Georgia School Boards Association and the Georgia Parents Teachers Association, which have both denounced OSD.
“If OSD comes into our county or into our district, they will commandeer facilities, they will commandeer equipment, and they will commandeer human resources and human capital as well,” Autry said.
Board member Katrina Young emphasized that a local school being controlled by those not from the community is not an ideal situation.
“We live in this community, who better knows what our kids need?” she said.
Douglas County also adopted a resolution against the OSD.
Douglas County School Board voted this week to oppose the proposed constitutional amendment supported by Gov. Nathan Deal, which is set to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The county school board’s resolution states in part, “Priority One: Protect local control of public education. The Georgia Constitution places each school system under the management and control of an elected board of education.”
“We view with concern any legislative initiatives which would result in or have the effect of limiting the authority or the revenue generating potential of local school systems.”
Douglas County School Board Chairman D.T. Jackson said, “Although schools in Douglas County are performing well and none are in danger of being taken over by OSD, we wanted to show our opposition to this amendment.
“OSD is not in the best interest of our state and our students. Schools should remain under local control by an elected board of education with local control of tax dollars. No one cares more about the success of schools and students than the local community,” Jackson said.
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