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The ADVANCE, Morch 3, 2021/Page 11A
Tillery: Week Seven Highlights
Another five legislative days
have come and gone, and the Sen
ate is now up to Legislative Day 24.
This places us four days away from
Crossover Day (Day 28), which is
when all bills must pass out of at
least one chamber in order to have
enough time to be heard by the
other side. As committees begin to
wrap up their work on Senate Bills,
we’ll start to consider even more
legislation. Our time here is going by quickly, but we’re
working to make sure we address all of the areas that are
important to you. Election reform has, and continues to
be, one area I hear about from you most. Last week, I
had mentioned a multitude of election related bills that
passed out of the Senate Ethics Committee. This week, we
took them up on the Senate Chamber and these now have
been sent to the House.
Senate Bill 40 -authorizes election registrars and ab
sentee ballot clerks to begin opening and processing ab
sentee ballots before election day. It also prohibits them
from talking with the media until the polls close. Process
ing ballots earlier will help decrease delayed reporting
times and make sure you get the results faster, but accu
rately. SB 40 passed by a vote of 53 to zero.
Senate Bill 67 -replaces the signature match process
and an absentee ballot request would need some kind
of identity verification, like a driver’s license number or
some other kind of state-issued ID. This was passed by a
vote of 35 to 18.
Senate Bill 184 - requires local elections officials to
update your “My Voter” page within 30 days of the elec
tion instead of 60 days to give you greater confidence
about your votes and help you know that it was counted.
This passed by a vote of 37 to 15.
Senate Bill 188 - requires counties to report the to
tal number of ballots cast and the details for each type of
ballot (in-person, absentee and provisional) to a public
website before any vote totals could be reported. Basi
cally, counting can’t begin until we know how many (and
what type) ballots we’re counting. SB 188 passed 34 to 18.
Senate Bill 89 - sets up a process for suspending and
replacing elections officers in chronically identifying low-
performing counties. The most recent election showed
that some counties functioned better than others, and
some others had management issues that affected the re
porting of results. SB 89 passed 35 to 18.
These bills began the vetting process in the Senate
Ethics Committee this week including Senate Bill 241, a
comprehensive package of election reforms.
Senate Bill 62 - would try to protect absentee ballots
by including measures that print the name of the precinct,
embed holographic security devices, maintain a list and
chain of custody, and establish a process for necessary du
plication.
Senate Bill 241 -would suggest roughly 12 changes
to the current way we conduct our elections. Some of
the areas it covers are limiting the use of portable polling
centers, eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, forbid
ding ballot harvesting and establishing a hotline number
where Georgians can make reports.
Senate Resolution 69 - would require an opt-in
rather than an opt-out on motor-voter registration.
Senate Bill 71 - would eliminate no-excuse absentee
voting.
Senate Bill 72 - would require county registrars to
obtain and review death records from the previous month
and remove deceased from the voting roles.
Senate Bill 74 - would allow poll watchers to ob
serve vote counting. There are currently different applica
tions for vote counting and poll watching.
Senate Bill 178 - would require electors to request
being sent an absentee ballot application rather than ap
plications being automatically sent.
Senate Bill 253 - would specify that notice be post
ed when polling places are relocated.
A couple more are waiting to be heard:
Senate Bill 232 - would provide each absentee bal
lot with a unique bar code and require officials who open
the outer envelope to sign an oath. It would also require
ballots to include a photocopy of some kind of personal
identification.
Senate Bill 233 - would establish a new voting sys
tem that uses hand-marked paper ballots or electronic
ballot marking devices.
Aside from elections, the Senate passed a number of
other bills that help improve the livelihoods of Georgians.
All of these bills passed the Senate this week:
Senate Bill 148 would create two groups that will be
tasked with analyzing our state’s finances: the 2021 Spe
cial Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgia and
the Special Joint Committee on Georgia Revenue Struc
ture. These are part of a long-term study to help look at
where Georgia is now and where we might be in the fu
ture. This will help make sure our state is as economically
competitive as possible and we remain the number one
state to do business.
Senate Bill 105, a criminal justice reform initiative,
would create a pathway to reduce probation time for de
fendants who meet certain qualifications. Research shows
a probated offender will overwhelmingly reoffend within
the first three years if they reoffend at all. Georgia’s proba
tion terms sometimes reach a decade. This causes Georgia
to have the largest population of people on probation per
capita and our systems are stressed. This bill saves taxpay
er money by targeting probation where it’s most effective.
Senate Bill 28 revises the reporting process for sus
pected child abuse and would add measures in foster care
that will help protect our kids and provide much needed
stability during the possible placement process into tem
porary care. We’re working hard to make sure every child
has a loving home.
Senate Bill 215 would allow aides certified through
the Department of Community Health to work in nursing
homes to help administer certain types of medications.
With COVID-19, our nursing homes have been more vul
nerable. This bill helps the staff members who have been
working around the clock to care for our loved ones.
Senate Resolution 28 would call for a convention to
set term limits on the U.S. House of Representatives and
U.S. Senate. It passed 34 to 20. We also have a bill that
passed committee setting term limits of 12 years on the
state House and state Senate.
Senate Bill 119 would allow for controlled burning
of leaves, yard debris, or hand-piled vegetation without
first having to call the forestry department for a permit,
provided the burning is done at daytime, and safe distanc
es from residences and woodlands.
We also passed the very important House Bill 265.
This bill, the annual Internal Revenue Code update,
makes it such that Georgia will not tax certain loans re
ceived from the federal government under the CARES
Act. We know many of you needed this bill to correctly
file your 2020 taxes. It has already been sent to the Gov
ernor.
The legislation covered here in Atlanta has served as a
reminder of our current circumstances and the impact of
the pandemic in our rural communities. While Georgia
has received more COVID-19 vaccines and several more
vaccination locations have opened up, our area has seen
fewer vaccines than other areas of the state. We’re cur
rently working with the Department of Public Health to
remedy this situation and help those who want vaccines
to get them. Sometimes, the issue has been as simple as a
provider not being identified correctly. These allowed for
a quick fix. Other times, the issues have been larger and
we’re taking a deeper look to make sure we’re distributing
the vaccines to as many people as we can. Many provid
ers have jumped in to help assist with this problem and
I can’t thank them enough for all the work they’ve done,
not only now but since the very beginning stages of the
pandemic. The approval of the Johnson & Johnson vac
cine will help our area as its storage requirements are less
stringent as well.
Speaking of COVID-19, at the end of this week I ex
perienced what many of you experienced long ago. While
my wife, a physician, tested positive this summer, I never
had an abnormal COVID-19 test. This week, I had an ab
normal result during our routine asymptomatic testing
at the Capitol. I immediately had a follow-up nasal PCR
test, purported to be the gold-standard, which showed me
negative for the virus. I know many of you have endured
these irregularities as well. Out of prudence and respect
for my colleagues, I will repeat the PCR test before return
ing to the Capitol this next week. I feel fine and have been
conducting budget calls and Zoom meetings all weekend.
These will continue regardless of the test results. If I can
be of any assistance to you, don’t hesitate to reach out and
thank you for allowing me to represent you in Atlanta.
Sen. Blake Tillery serves as Chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee. He represents the 19th Senate
District, which includes Appling, Jeff Davis, Long, Montgomery,
Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Wayne, and Wheeler counties and a
portion of Liberty and Tattnall counties. He can be reached by
email at blake.tillery@senate.ga.gov.
By Sen. Blake Tillery
(R-Vidalia)
A New Choice for Life
Medicine.
Meadows Health Internal
Medicine is proud to welcome
Samuel Featherston, M.D., to
our staff.
Samuel Featherston, M.D.
Dr. Featherston received his
Doctor of Medicine degree
from Mercer University School
of Medicine, Macon, Georgia,
and practiced his residency at
Memorial Health University
Medical Center, Savannah,
Georgia.
He is certified by the American
Board of Internal Medicine,
and will be seeing
patients at Meadows
Health Internal
Meadows Health
INTERNAL MEDICINE
1707 Meadows Lane, Suite G
Vidalia, GA 30474 ,
912-535-5120
ODDS
Oends
Pre-K
Enrollment—
Toombs County
Schools will hold Pre-
Enrollment for 2021 -
2022 on March 31 at
Toombs Central Ele
mentary School from
8:30 a.m. to 2:00
p.m., and on April 1
at Lyons Primary
School from 8:30
a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Stu
dents must be 4
years old on or be
fore September 1,
2021.
For more informa
tion, visit school web
sites or social media,
or call Toombs Cen
tral at 565-7781 or Ly
ons Primary at 526-
8391.
Three Injured in
Crash on Hwy. 292
By Deborah Clark
Regional Editor
dclarkadvance@gmail.com
Three persons were ex
tricated from their vehicles
in a two-vehicle crash at
Georgia Highway 292 and
Collins Road in Lyons last
week.
The Georgia State Pa
trol, which investigated,
reported that a sport util
ity vehicle driven by James
Arnold Lovett, 50, of Sop-
erton, veered into the op
posite lane of traffic and
was struck by a car driven
by Julian Vernon Kennedy,
82, of Lyons. The wreck oc
curred around 4 p.m. on
Thursday, February 25.
Lovett was taken by
helicopter to the Medi
cal College of Georgia at
Augusta University and
Julian Kennedy, and Da
vid Kennedy, 75, a passen
ger in Kennedy’s car, were
transported to Meadows
Regional Medical Center
in Vidalia for treatment of
suspected serious injuries.
The wreck occurred
as Lovett, traveling west
on Highway 292, failed to
maintain his lane and trav
eled onto the north shoul
der of the highway for 298
feet before overcorrecting.
Lovett then veered into the
eastbound lane and was
broadsided on the passen
ger side by Kennedy’s car.
Lovett’s vehicle then over
turned and came to rest in
a ditch adjacent to the road.
Lovett was cited for
driving with a revoked li
cense, failure to maintain
his lane of traffic, and not
wearing a seat belt. Kenne
dy was not cited in the mis
hap. The GSP is continuing
to investigate the incident.