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4A Friday, December 11,2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL CONCERTS ■ Continued from 1A groups of 24 or smaller, singing for around three minutes before changing with another group. Each singer will wear a mask and dis tance themselves on stage. Williams said this concert will be the first show of the semester for her students and will feature classic ‘80s songs “with a splash of Christmas.” “I love watching the kids work hard for a goal and for a perfor mance, and then it comes to frui tion,” Williams said. “Just to see those shy kids that never thought they’d get out there on that stage and perform, to see them accom plish that is wonderful. My main goal is that they realize how impor tant music is in their lives and they enjoy it.” Williams, Bassett and Mavis all agree that wearing masks while singing offers a challenge. Mavis said when singing, she finds it difficult to inhale the same amount of breath as she would without a mask. “The breath support is what fuels the sound, so it’s hard,” she said. “You breathe a lot more fre quently, and I think we’ve adjusted to it. But, we’d be happy to go back to the way things were. ” Although wearing masks has made singing difficult, Williams said her choir has adapted well. During her class periods, the cho ral director keeps her doors open and allows her students to go out side, then return after a short interval. “We take all the precautions, and the kids are just doing really well,” she said. “I thought the kids might complain and fuss about it, but they wear their masks and they don’t complain. It hasn’t been a bad experience, and I credit that to my students.” Like Williams, Guisasola said he keeps one of his doors open to the outside to add more air flow. While practicing inside, his stu dents are separated in cubicles — which were made by some of the teens’ parents — and wear masks when they’re not playing. The stu dents’ instruments have bell covers that create a barrier, so droplets and germs can’t escape. Guisasola said he started his role as band director at Flowery Branch High this fall knowing it would pose many challenges. He said he found that group Zoom lessons don’t work well because of different internet speeds, and book-led instruction isn’t condu cive to band at all. Even though Flowery Branch High’s marching band didn’t get to perform in front of people this December, Guisasola said the pri vate show was mostly for them. “Kids do music and do fine arts because they like it, there’s a sense of community there,” he said. “They’re working for a goal. I think my kids have been super resilient, they don’t take anything for granted. They really cher ish everything we get to do and appreciate that, and that’s pretty special.” Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Above left: The Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce holds their annual Eggs & Issues meeting Thursday, Dec. 10, at Lanier Technical College’s Ramsey Conference Center. Above right: Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, attends the annual meeting. EGGS ■ Continued from 1A Constituents expressing concerns State Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, said after the breakfast that he has heard from community members about their elec tion concerns, with some suggesting that “we do leg islatively what should be done through the judiciary branch.” “You can’t legislate chal lenges of laws. That’s the reason we have a judicial system,” he said. State Rep. Matt Dubnik, R-Gainesville, told The Times after the event that he was working through about 53,000 emails. He said he has gotten more than 1,000 text messages and returned his 500th phone call about the elec tion this week. “To say that constituents are reaching out would be an understatement,” he said. People seem to be over whelmed by information in the media and on social media and are unsure what to do, he said. “There’s just so much out there,” Dubnik said. Dubnik said the majority of people contacting him “do not believe that this was a clean and fair election, that there is fraud present at some point and in some manner.” There has been no evi dence of widespread fraud. State Rep. Timothy Barr, R-Lawrenceville, said he has also been hearing from constituents concerned about election irregulari ties. The complexity of this election cycle left room for issues, he said. “Our system is compli cated in that the counties are involved, the state is involved and the Secretary of State oversees all the elections, and we are deal ing with a federal election,” Barr said. “So, you have all facets of government involved, and when that many players get together and that many folks are involved, there are going to be some things that are unusual.” Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system imple mentation manager, said Thursday the state is inves tigating 132 cases involving the general election. There have been 250 cases overall this year. The state has 23 investigators, Sterling said. On Tuesday, Dec. 8, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation met with Secretary of State’s Office officials after receiving a request to assist them with investigations. GBI agents will do inter views and investigate alle gations of fraud reported to the state, according to an email from a GBI spokes woman. One investigation involves “custody of bal lots” in Hall, although state and local officials have declined to provide details on the case. Sterling said one of the investigations focuses on voter review panels in DeKalb County. Another investigation involves Cof fee County in south Geor gia and its handling of the recount. Sterling has spoken sharply about the integrity of the election saying “it has all gone too far,” refer encing threats of violence against those working in elections over allegations of fraud. Overall, election law “needs to be tweaked,” Miller said. “We don’t want to be in a position where we are suppressing votes. We want to make sure that every legal vote is counted and that every illegal vote is cast out.” Miller was the only one of the legislators who men tioned filing specific elec tion legislation Dubnik said that he does not have plans to introduce his own election legislation but expects election reform to be a top issue in the next legislative session. “Having a system in place that renews and maintains confidence in voters is going to be key,” he said. “I’m happy to look at anything and every thing, but probably have it centered around absen tee, vote-by-mail process, policies, things like signa ture verification, how that works.” The legislature needs to look at the signature veri fication process and claims of people voting in multiple states, Barr said. “If we, being you, I and all voters, lose the confi dence in our election sys tem, we have then lost our system of government,” he said. “So this is the most paramount thing that the legislature has to look at in 2021, other than our consti tutional duty of the budget.” Absentee balloting and photo identification Miller said being able to vote absentee without cause “has created a prospect for problems.” Georgia is one of 34 states that do not require a reason from those who wish to vote absentee, a change made in 2005. Many voters opted to vote by mail this year out of concern over the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawkins said after the event that all registered vot ers in Georgia received an absentee ballot application for the primary, but “there are registered voters that no longer live in the state and are no longer in a position to even vote.” “We have to establish a very secure and trustworthy system for the citizens of Georgia,” he said. A photo ID is not required to use an absentee ballot, but voters sign the outer envelope of their ballot and signatures are verified, usu ally using the signature on record from their driver’s license. If a voter’s absentee ballot is rejected, the voter can visit their local election office to “cure” the ballot, by presenting a photo ID. Georgia has allowed vot ers to cure absentee ballots since 2019. All of Hall’s dele gation supported the Repub lican-backed House Bill 316, which allowed the practice. Voters can check the sta tus of their absentee ballot on the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office My Voter Page site. According to the state, 0.15% of absentee ballots were rejected due to signa ture issues in the November general election. Hawkins said he expected signature verification to be discussed in the upcoming session. Drop boxes Miller said he has heard concerns from constituents about ballot drop boxes. “Drop boxes are supposed to be video-monitored,” Miller said. “What good is a video if you don’t have the audio to go with it? Not very good, is it? And they’re very low-resolution and they’re put in by each county, so there’s that whole wide stan dard there that just creates a problem.” Following Eggs & Issues, he said, “I don’t think we necessarily need to get rid of drop boxes, but I think we need to make sure they’re handled appropriately. We have asked counties for videos of drop boxes and they’re having a difficult time producing them. ” Miller also asked an attorney from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office about video surveillance of absentee ballot drop boxes at a Dec. 3 Georgia Senate committee meeting. Ryan Germany, general counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office, said at that meeting the state requires video surveillance of drop boxes to be kept on file for 30 days after the certification or conclusion of an election contest. That video is public record if a community mem ber wants to review it, and counties are also required to hand it over to the state upon request. “Any time we have requested it from a county, we have received it,” Ger many said. Germany said last week the state has not seen any evidence of counties keep ing dropboxes open past the deadline, which is 7 p.m. on Election Day, when polls close. Counting the votes Miller said his legisla tion would address counties “that are habitually failing, habitually causing a prob lem, habitually having to have recounts, habitually turning in their ballots late.” He singled out Fulton County on election issues. “How can Florida count a whole darn state before Ful ton County can count Fulton County? That’s ridiculous,” Miller said. He said after the break fast that there “are habitu ally offending counties — we just want to make sure to hold them to the same standard that we hold every one else. For his part, because of the delays in Fulton County returns, Dunahoo said he suspects there might be pos sible corruption involved — enough that could make President Donald Trump the winner in Georgia. “Whenever (Atlanta) has a race for mayor, it takes them a week to figure out who they want to win,” he said. Dunahoo said he believes the vote was secure in Hall County, where Trump won decisively. “I feel Hall County did an excellent job,” Dunahoo said. Win prizes from the The Times and our great partners this holiday season during the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway! www.gainesvilletimes.com/christmascontest Have a message for someone special this Christmas? Let us help! We will place your message in our December 23 issue. Small Ornaments $50 (50 word limit) Large Ornaments $100 (100 word Limit) Reserve your space by December 18 email Mlewis@gainesvilletimes.com or call 770-535-6371 Sign up now through December 22. Every day will feature a prize from a different sponsor. On December 23rd a Grand Prize winner will be announced. 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