About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2020)
Friday, November 13,20201 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Tropical storm Eta brings heavy rain as it travels from Fla. to Ga. and Carolinas. inside, 4a Honestly Local Hall’s hand recount of ballots starts today Process could take days and is open for public viewing BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Hall County elections offi cials will start hand-counting ballots from the presidential race at 9 a.m. Friday, a pro cess that could take several days and is open for public viewing. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday announced an audit of presi dential election results that he said will trigger a full hand recount. County election officials must begin the hand tally by 9 a.m. Friday and complete it by Wednesday night. Lori Wurtz, Hall County’s elections director, said that all 91,023 ballots cast in the presi dential race in Hall would be reviewed by a team of three people. Each team has one Republican, one Democrat and one designee of the coun ty’s elections board. Wurtz has contacted local parties about their represen tatives for the teams. She said the county will have six to 10 teams, although all teams may not be working at once. When reviewing each bal lot, one person on the team will read the information on the ballot, one will record the information and the third will observe and verify the process is done correctly, Wurtz said. Wurtz said it was still undetermined how long the recount would take or how much it could cost. Poll work ers, who would serve as elec tions board designees on the teams, would be paid, while representatives from local parties would be volunteers. “We have over 90,000 bal lots that will have to be looked at and tallied by hand, and that’s a really big job, which is what prompted me to go ahead and try to take care of anything that I can ahead of time as I’m awaiting further direction from the secretary of state’s office,” she said Wednesday. The process will be open for observation from the public, SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Hall County Elections Director Lori Wurtz loads a batch of provisional ballots Monday, Nov. 9, after they are certified to be counted. Officials will begin counting ballots by hand today. Wurtz said. Those interested can walk in to the office at the Hall County Government Center, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville. Counting begins at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13, and Wurtz said it would likely go until at least 5 p.m. Friday. Weekend shifts are also expected, she said. County election staffers will work with the paper ballots in batches, dividing them into piles for each can didate. Then they will count each pile by hand, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. Gabriel Ster ling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, had said Wednesday that the ballots would be counted by ■ Please see RECOUNT, 5A Grand jury returns with ‘no glitches’ BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com With more than 300 cases to be presented to the grand jury, Northeastern Judicial Cir cuit District Attorney Lee Darragh said the first grand jury session this week since the COVID-19 outbreak went smoothly and with “no glitches.” Darragh’s office presented 29 cases this week to the grand jury. According to court documents, the cases primarily involved counts of theft, burglary, drug offenses and weapons charges. Darragh said there are still 321 cases ready to go for grand jury, and he said he expects to present 150 cases total to the grand jury before the end of the year. The grand jury this week met in a Hall County courtroom, but the cases will soon be heard at the Gainesville Municipal Court. “We think that will go as smoothly, but it will be different,” Darragh said. Hall County Superior Court Judge Kathlene Gosselin signed an order in October designat ing the Municipal Court as an alternate court facility. The COVID-19 jury committee made the decision to move Hall County grand jury sessions to the Municipal Court. “We wanted the courthouse as clear as it could be without having grand jury run into other trials, which is not a problem without COVID-19,” Darragh said, adding the Munic ipal Court was not available on the first day ■ Please see GRAND, 5A Hall, city see graduation rates increase BY KELSEY P0D0 kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com Both Gainesville City and Hall County Schools’ improved on their graduation rates during 2019-2020 school year, compared to the year before. Inside Hall Schools deadline for switching to remote or in-person learning is today, 5A According to the Georgia Department of Education’s most recent report, Hall’s high schools aver aged an 88.9% gradu ation rate, up from 87.4% in school year 2018-19, and Gainesville High School achieved an 86.1% rate, up from 81% in 2018-19. Both districts also surpassed this year’s state average of 83.8%. There are eight high schools included in the rate in the Hall County district I Please see GRADUATION, 6A Mother: Man in death investigation was ‘big teddy’ bear BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Michelle Guerra said her son, John Aaron McMurray, called her at 9:46 p.m. the night before his death, saying he was exhausted and wished her a good night. McMurray, of Gainesville, died after allegedly fighting with two men at his home, according to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office. Guerra described her son as a “big teddy” bear who was gener ous and loved people. “He would give them his last dollar if they thought they were hungry,” Guerra said. “I’ve seen him take clothes when he had very little of his own and give it to the homeless people.” Sheriff’s Office spokes man Derreck Booth said McMurray was in a fight Oct. 28 with two men, Zachery Duane Rus sell, 28, of Flowery Branch, and John Marlin King Jr., 30, of Winder, at McMurray’s home on Old Athens Road. Authorities tried to revive McMurray, but the man died at the scene, Booth said. Guerra said her son was industrious while working two jobs, one at Georgia Hardwoods and Door Dash delivery at night. “He was very bright, loved life, loved music, loved to dance, loved to sing and was totally and com pletely in love with his (2-year-old) son,” Guerra said. King and Russell were arrested that day, and both men were charged with battery, Booth said. King was additionally charged with aggravated assault, and Rus sell was charged with party to the crime of aggravated assault, authorities said. The sheriff’s office previously described the men as friends, but Guerra said that was inaccurate. The Times made multiple calls to the Hall County coroner and deputy coroner to get more infor mation on the case, but those calls were not returned. Booth said the autopsy and toxi cology reports were incomplete and would likely be months. “Because of the ongoing inves tigation, we’re not able to get into anything further on the medical front,” Booth wrote in an email. ■ Please see MCMURRAY, 5A McMurray This e-edition sponsored by: YOU CAN COUNTON Flight Choice HOMES jacksonemc.com
