About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2020)
LOCAL The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition-December 12-13, 2020 9A Lawmakers talk election reform at annual event i SCOTT ROGERS I The Times The Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce holds its annual Eggs & Issues meeting Thursday, Dec. 10, at Lanier Technical College’s Ramsey Conference Center. BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Expect election reform legislation to flood the 2021 Georgia General Assem bly, state Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, said at a leg islative breakfast Thursday, Dec. 10. “We’re going to have to put a stoplight at the Capitol for all the people wanting to file election legislation,” he said, speaking at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs & Issues, held virtually over Zoom and with a small group gathered at Lanier Technical College. Miller said bills in the next legislative session would likely focus on absentee bal lots and the performance of individual county elections offices. The session is sched uled to begin Jan. 11 but could be delayed due to COVID-19. The Georgia Senate Repub lican Caucus said in a state ment earlier this week that, among other things, it would pursue nixing at-will absen tee voting, a requirement for photo identification for absen tee voting and the outlawing of ballot drop boxes. State Rep. Emory Duna- hoo, R-Gillsville, was among several legislators who said Thursday they have been overwhelmed by calls and emails from Georgians with concerns about the election, particularly with absentee ballots. Some constituents have also asked about a possible special session, and four members of the Georgia Sen ate called for one. However, Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan have said that would not be possible. “Doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law,” Kemp and Duncan said in a state ment issued Sunday, Dec. 6. Constituents expressing concerns State Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, said after the breakfast that he has heard from community members about their election concerns, with some suggesting that “we do legislatively what should be done through the judiciary branch.” “You can’t legislate chal lenges of laws. That’s the DOORS ■ Continued from 1A We do it very safely, and it’s the most effective way to get people out to vote.” RNC spokeswoman Savan nah Viar said the national committee invested roughly $350 million since the 2012 election into data programs along with a door-knocking app to know which residen tial areas to canvass. Earlier in the day, the Republican operatives had few open the doors, but Viar said they were able to talk with some “enthusiastic vot ers” later in the day. On the other side of the aisle, Hall County Democrats chairman Kim Copeland said the group has had roughly 80 volunteers do some form of canvassing in the past three weeks. Copeland said canvassers hit the streets again Thurs day, Dec. 10. He said the group follows public health guidelines, and all volunteers go through health and safety training before heading out. Like his Republican coun terparts, Copeland said he recognizes the importance of the runoff elections for Senate. “Basically, do we want stalemate versus do we want to move the country forward?” Copeland asked. “We know how important this is, and we know what (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell did under (former President) Barack Obama, where he blocked everything from getting done. This would just be 10 times worse if we do not put Jon Ossoff and Raphael War- nock in there. It would just be super gridlock.” The Democratic Party of Georgia could not provide by press deadline Friday the number of volunteers canvassing statewide or the dollar amount spent on in- person voter efforts. Working across Gaines ville, Flowery Branch, Cler mont and all corners of Hall, Copeland said they have reason we have a judicial sys tem,” 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 mes sages and returned his 500th phone call about the election 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 been hearing from constitu ents concerned about election irregularities. 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 dealing 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 implementa tion manager, said Thursday the state is investigating 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 different groups focusing on different sectors of the electorate. One has focused on getting the base back out to the polls, while another focuses on people who did vote but don’t often vote in runoff elections. Another group entirely is dedicated to encouraging res idents who did not vote but have voted in past elections. “We’re leaving no stone unturned,” Copeland said. Latinos Conservative Organization President Art Gallegos Jr. said they have partnered with the Faith and Freedom Coalition and are hosting a Dec. 16 breakfast with pastors. He recently received door-hangers that have bilingual information. “I was very grateful for the Faith and Freedom Coali tion that they were able to put it all together and put it in Spanish as well,” Gallegos said. “We’re out canvassing and putting it out there with the community, pastors, churches, Hispanic busi nesses and passing them out with our volunteers.” Gallegos said there were more than 20 volunteers who have signed up to do such canvassing. In terms of a message for voters, he said he wants people to dig into the issues and where the par ties lie on platform issues. “I think people are really now investigating instead of just saying or voting one way,” Gallegos said. “People are looking into, ‘What does this party stand for? What does the other party stand for?”’ Newtown Florist Club executive director Rose Johnson said the group is hoping to serve as a resource center for people if they have questions on voting, need an absentee ballot application or even just to use the computer. “The goal of having a more engaged electorate is really our primary focus,” Johnson said. Johnson said they are con nected to groups across the state who are working on their own “get out the vote” campaigns as a way to strate- gize and not duplicate efforts. Georgia Bureau of Investiga tion 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 allega tions of fraud reported to the state, according to an email from a GBI spokeswoman. One investigation involves “custody of ballots” in Hall, although state and local offi cials 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 Coffee County in south Georgia and its handling of the recount. Sterling has spoken sharply about the integrity of the elec tion saying “it has all gone too far,” referencing threats of violence against those work ing in elections over allega tions of fraud. Overall, election law “needs to be tweaked,” Miller said. “We don’t want to be in a position where we are sup pressing 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 election 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 everything, but probably have it centered around absentee, vote-by-mail process, policies, things like signature verifica tion, how that works. ” The legislature needs to look at the signature verifi cation process and claims of people voting in multiple states, Barr said. “If we, being you, I and all voters, lose the confidence in our election system, we have then lost our system of gov ernment,” he said. “So this is the most paramount thing that the legislature has to look at in 2021, other than our con stitutional duty of the budget. ” Absentee balloting 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 trustwor thy system for the citizens of Georgia,” he said. A photo ID is not required to use an absentee ballot, but voters sign the outer enve lope of their ballot and sig natures are verified, usually 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 present ing a photo ID. Georgia has allowed voters to cure absen tee ballots since 2019. All of Hall’s delegation supported the Republican-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 neces sarily 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 hav ing a difficult time producing them.” Miller also asked an attor ney from the Georgia Secre tary of State’s Office about video surveillance of absen tee 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 legislation would address counties “that are habitually failing, habitu ally causing a problem, habit ually having to have recounts, habitually turning in their bal lots 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 breakfast that there “are habitually offending counties — we just want to make sure to hold them to the same standard that we hold everyone 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.
