About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2023)
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 r l SMOKY MOUNTAIN CENTER M FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS MARCH 11 LET THE MUSIC SPEAK WTTH SPECIAL GUEST ADAM AGS SPONSORED BY SEUSSIC THE HUSICAL MARCH 24 8 25 m APRIL 4 And so much more! Find out at SmokyMountainArts.com 1028 Georgia Rd • Franklin, NC 28734 Toll-Free 877.310.8202 @0(1) CE
