Newspaper Page Text
8A Midweek Edition-March 1-2, 2023
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
STATE
Residency fights could snare many Ga. voters under bill
JEFF AMY I Associated Press
Georgia Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max
Burns, R-Sylvania, explains a bill that would ban private
contributions to counties for elections, on Monday, Feb. 27,
at the state Capitol in Atlanta. Burns is backing a measure
that would make it easier to knock voters off the rolls based
on residency questions.
BY JEFF AMY
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Georgia
Republicans are consider
ing a new wave of election
legislation that could, in
part, make it easier for resi
dency challenges to knock
thousands of people from
the voter rolls, again cater
ing to those who still deny
President Joe Biden’s 2020
victory, two years after a
GOP-driven election law
overhaul in the politically
competitive state was signed
amid widespread outcry.
“Election deniers will
never be satisfied..Kris
ten Nabers, the Georgia
director of voting rights
group, All Voting is Local,
told the state Senate Ethics
Committee on Thursday.
“They’re just going to keep
pushing to perpetuate con
spiracy theories in the name
of greater transparency.”
But the sponsor says the
law will ease voter concerns
and stop counties from inter
preting existing law in differ
ent ways.
“It’s a confidence bill,”
said Georgia Senate Ethics
Committee Chairman Max
Burns, a Republican from
Sylvania. “It’s the ability to
make sure, as we implement
Georgia law, we follow it
consistently. There are a lot
of counties who are inter
preting the law differently. ”
The bill, rewritten Mon
day, would make it easier to
challenge the eligibility of
voters, require county offi
cials to record video of every
ballot drop box, ban counties
from hiring election work
ers who aren’t American
citizens and let counties opt
out of the state’s electronic
ballot markers in favor of
paper ballots.
A separate measure seeks
to make it a felony for county
officials to take private
money to pay for elections,
after Republican attacks on
a suburban Atlanta county
for taking such money.
The new language reacts
to the fears of Republican
primary voters who still
believe that balloting in
Georgia is insecure, despite
the state’s 2022 election
being conducted without
widespread controversy. It
would build on the Georgia’s
2021 election law, enacted
over bitter opposition, which
said every voter in the state
could submit an unlimited
number of challenges of
voter eligibility, shortened
the period to request an
absentee ballot, and short
ened the early voting period
before a runoff election
The measure has a long
way to go before becoming
law, with changes still being
proposed. But this year’s pro
posal could make it possible
for activists who have been
challenging tens of thou
sands of registrations across
Georgia to knock those vot
ers off the rolls based only
on their names appearing
on the address change data
base maintained by the U.S.
Postal Service.
County officials have been
rejecting most of those chal
lenges, saying that residence,
for voting purposes, is more
complicated than appear
ing on a change-of-address
list. Officials have generally
ruled that a challenger must
have first-hand knowledge of
someone being unqualified,
instead of picking names off
a list. But Burns said that he
wants counties to require a
hearing and possibly remove
someone from the rolls
based on the lists.
“The most important thing
is to ensure that everyone on
our voter rolls is a legitimate,
legal voter,” Burns said.
Challenges would be
thrown out if someone could
prove they were in military
service, a student attending
college away from home, or
in federal service in Wash
ington, D.C. But opponents
say the list is inaccurate and
that the state shouldn’t shift
the burden of staying on the
rolls back onto voters.
“Every single one of those
people has to answer to a
voter challenge. That’s how
it’s going to work,” said Vasu
Abhiraman, a lawyer for the
American Civil Liberties
Union of Georgia. “The con
spiracy theorists are going to
dig up their names from the
change of address registries
and they’re going to try to
disenfranchise them.”
The measure also strikes
at another target of election
deniers — ballot drop boxes.
Georgia first used drop
boxes under an emergency
rule during the pandemic in
2020. But Republican activ
ists besieged lawmakers in
2021 with claims that Demo
crats illegally collected and
dropped off ballots at unat
tended outdoor boxes. The
2021 law codified the use of
boxes, but limited how many
could be used, requiring
that they be inside early in-
person voting locations and
constantly watched.
The new bill would go fur
ther, requiring all of Geor
gia’s 159 counties to record
video of every drop box,
including making sure “the
faces of each person using
the drop box are visible,”
and make that video freely
available online, retaining
it for at least four years.
The bill would also say that
people must feed absentee
ballots into a drop box one at
a time. At least one Georgia
man who was recorded drop
ping off ballots in 2020 said
he has faced threats.
Videos of drop boxes,
including some where vot
ers inserted multiple bal
lots, were a centerpiece of
election conspiracy theories,
including a movie called
“2000 Mules” that suggested
Democratic-aligned opera
tives were supposedly paid
to illegally collect and drop
off ballots.
A second measure would
make it a felony for county
officials to accept money
beyond their own tax rev
enue, except from the state
or federal government, to
run elections. It’s an ampli
fication of a provision from
the 2021 law that made it ille
gal for elections officials to
accept outside money, after
Republicans grew alarmed
that Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg donated more
than $400 million to election
officials nationwide.
Recently, suburban Atlan
ta’s DeKalb County accepted
$2 million from the U.S. Alli
ance for Election Excellence
to seek improvements and
share best practices. The
alliance includes the Cen
ter for Tech and Civic Life,
Zuckerberg’s main funding
vehicle from 2020. That set
off a round of condemna
tions from Republicans that
DeKalb had broken the law.
“The high ranking of
employees of DeKalb County
and its Democrat Party-
appointed chairwoman of
its board of elections have
conspired to intentionally
violate the Election Integrity
Act of 2021,” DeKalb County
Republican Party Chair
woman Marci McCarthy told
the committee Monday.
However, the county com
mission and not the election
office accepted the money,
and some have said it is
still legal for elected county
commissioners to take such
grants.
“Pursuing grant funding to
supplement operating bud
gets is a standard and ethical
practice for county govern
ments across this state,”
DeKalb County Board of
Registrations and Elections
member Karli Swift told the
committee Monday. “And
contrary to the insinuation
in ... this bill, once a county
board of commissioners
accepts funds and appro
priates them, they lawfully
become appropriated public
funds.”
Keisha Lance Bottoms leaving
White House, returns to Atlanta
BY MEG KINNARD
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. —
President Joe Biden has
appointed former Colum
bia, South Carolina, Mayor
Steve Benjamin as a top
White House adviser, tak
ing over from Keisha Lance
Bottoms, the former Atlanta
mayor who had assumed the
role in June.
Both Georgia and South
Carolina have become cru
cial to the Democratic Party
ahead of the 2024 election
cycle. South Carolina holds
the Democrats’ first nomi
nating contest, and Georgia
helped solidify the Demo
crats’ Senate majority dur
ing the 2022 midterms and
in 2020 gave Biden a rare
win in a southern state that
hasn’t backed a Democrat
for president in 30 years.
Benjamin will become
director of the White House
Office of Public Engage
ment, overseeing efforts
“to ensure community lead
ers, diverse perspectives,
and new voices have the
opportunity to inform the
work of the President in an
inclusive, transparent and
responsible way,” accord
ing to the White House. In
a release Monday, Biden
called Benjamin a “longtime
public servant” whose “deep
relationships across the
country” would well serve
the administration.
Benjamin, 53, has long
been considered a rising
star in Democratic poli
tics, serving three terms
as Columbia’s mayor, and
the first Black mayor in the
city’s history. Serving as
president of the U.S. Confer
ence of Mayors and African
Americans Mayors Associa
tion, Benjamin spoke at the
2016 Democratic National
Convention and was among
the candidates considered
for Hillary Clinton’s running
mate that year. He opted not
to run for a fourth term in
2021.
The appointment comes
at a time when Benjamin’s
home state is becoming even
more critical to Democrats
as they face the 2024 presi
dential campaign. Earlier
this year, the Democratic
National Committee voted
to hold their first nominating
contest of the next cycle in
South Carolina, supplanting
Iowa, New Hampshire and
Nevada in an effort to more
deeply represent the desires
of Black voters.
In South Carolina’s 2020
primary, Benjamin met
with nearly all of the 2020
Democratic White House
hopefuls, offering advice
as they wound their way
through South Carolina, a
state in which support from
Black voters is critical to
Democratic candidates’ suc
cess. Benjamin initially gave
his endorsement to former
New York City Mayor Mike
Bloomberg before support
ing Biden, who scored a
thundering win in the state’s
primary.
Benjamin also served
in the administration of
Gov. Jim Hodges, who in
1998 was the most recent
Democrat elected to South
Carolina’s highest office.
Earlier this year, his wife,
DeAndrea Gist Benjamin,
was sworn in as a judge on
the 4th US. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Richmond, Vir
ginia, appointed to the post
by Biden.
Georgia Senate again pushes
$6,000 school voucher bill
BY JEFF AMY
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Georgia
Senate Republicans are
again pushing a plan to give
$6,000 educational vouchers
to many students, part of a
nationwide push for what
supporters call education
savings accounts following
the COVID-19 pandemic.
The movement is fueled
in part by fights over race-
related education and how
to address gender issues in
schools.
The Senate Education
and Youth Committee voted
6-5 on Tuesday to pass Sen
ate Bill 233, sending it to the
full Senate for more debate.
The bill must pass the Sen
ate by Monday for the state
House to take it up, or it will
likely die for 2023.
Supporters argue that the
vouchers for private school
tuition, home schooling sup
plies, therapy, tutoring or
even early college courses
for high school students
would help students who
aren’t well-served by local
school districts.
“Even in the best of the
best, public education is not
one size fits all,” Sen. Greg
Dolezal, a Republican from
Cumming who sponsors the
bill, told the committee.
Opponents argue the bill
would pressure the state’s
$12.5 billion K-12 school
funding formula, and that
$6,000 would not be enough
to pay tuition at most private
schools, meaning the money
would benefit middle class
and rich families more than
poor ones.
“Those failing schools
are almost always in areas
where those children are
dealing with poverty,” Lisa
Morgan, president of the
Georgia Association of Edu
cators, told the committee.
“We must fund our public
schools first and not con
tinue to take resources away
from our children whose
only chance at an education
is in our public schools.”
Supporters, though, dis
pute those claims. Dolezal
amended the bill to say that
no more students could join
the program in any year
in which the state doesn’t
appropriate the full amount
called for by the formula.
He also noted that $6,000
is less than the average
amount of state aid given to
each of Georgia’s 1.75 mil
lion public school students,
and that local systems
would keep their property
tax dollars allocated for
public education.
Buzz Brockway, a former
Republican state House
member and chairman of
the State Charter Schools
Commission, told lawmak
ers that about 500,000 Geor
gia students attend schools
graded “D” or “F” by the
state.
“Those are the kids that
need our help, and they
need this bill,” said Brock
way, who works for the
Georgia Center for Oppor
tunity, a poverty-fighting
group.
A state Senate committee
heard testimony this sum
mer from witnesses who
said the state needs to add
extra money to its educa
tional formula for students
in poverty.
“If our schools are failing,
it’s because they don’t have
the resources they need
to get whatever ‘A’ grade
you’re hoping they get,” said
Cindy Battles, a lobbyist for
the liberal-leaning Peoples
Agenda group.
Georgia already has
programs giving vouch
ers for special education
students in private schools
and state income tax cred
its for donors to private
school scholarship funds. A
bill is pending to increase
tax credits for donors to
the private school scholar
ships, from $120 million
to $200 million a year. The
bill under consideration
Tuesday would allow par
ents to direct spending as
they wanted, including for
home-schooling.
Senior Adviser
to President
Biden for Public
engagement
Keisha Lance
Bottoms speaks
during the daily
briefing at the
White House in
Washington, Jan.
13.
SUSAN WALSH I
Associated Press
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