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Some Assembly Required
STATE LAWMAKERS WILL LOOK AT ELECTIONS, THE LOTTERY AND MORE THIS YEAR
By Blake Aued and Tyler Wilkins news@flagpole.com
E lection reform will be front and center
in this year’s Georgia General Assembly
session, according to House Speaker David
Ralston (R-Blue Ridge).
At a news conference last week, Ralston
outlined his agenda for the 40-day ses
sion, which started Monday, Jan. 11. He
announced the formation of a special com
mittee to look at election integrity, after
widespread (and unfounded) allegations of
fraud in President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Many Republicans have called for tamping
down on absentee voting, in particular. An
unprecedented number of mail-in ballots
during the COVID-19 pandemic over
whelmingly favored Biden.
Ralston said he would be reluctant to
change a state law requiring a runoff if no
candidate receives over 50% of the vote—
something that came back to bite
former U.S. Sen. David Perdue,
who led in the general election
but then lost to now-Sen. Jon
Ossoff in the Jan. 5 runoff.
“Somebody would have to make
a real strong case to convince
me,” Ralston said.
Georgia’s other Republican
senator, Kelly Loeffler, was
forced into a runoff that she lost
to Democrat Raphael Warnock
by Georgia’s “jungle primary”
rule for special elections,
which put 21 candidates on the
November ballot. “I don’t know
who could be in favor of a jungle
primary anymore,” Ralston said.
Ralston also threw cold water
on calls to end no-excuse voting
by mail. “I think the level of
security for an absentee bal
lot should be just the same as
in-person voting,” he said. “We
might look at some tightening
up, but I want elections to be
open.”
He also backed away from his
call for the General Assembly to
appoint the secretary of state—an elected
position—after Brad Raffensperger did not
attend or send a staffer to a House commit
tee hearing on the debunked accusations of
election fraud. “We’re going to have to talk
about it,” Ralston said. “I’m not wedded to
that idea only.”
Ralston’s remarks came against the back
drop of Donald Trump supporters—egged
on by the president—storming the U.S.
Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress certified the
Electoral College vote.
“There’s going to have to be a lot of dis
cussion among the members and leadership
of our Republican Party on a path forward,
both in D.C. and here in Georgia.”
Ralston said the GOP has to get back to
addressing “issues that make peoples’ lives
better,” pointing to the passage of transpor
tation funding reform and criminal justice
reform measures, an income tax cut and
parental leave in recent sessions. “We have
to turn our attention from those seeking to
divide us and focus our attention on work
that brings us together,” he said.
Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff
Duncan also condemned the right-
wing violence in Washington, D.C. after
Raffensperger—who has received threats—
and his staff evacuated the Capitol building
in Atlanta in response to armed protesters
outside. “Today is an incredibly sobering
reminder of how delicate our democracy
truly is,” Duncan said. “It is also a reminder
of how dangerous it is when people in
power act as if they are more important
than that democracy.”
Ralston also said he expects to expand
the state’s mental health system this year,
calling it “a real priority of mine.” Mental
health issues “touch almost every family in
Georgia,” but treatment options are “disap
pointingly limited,” especially in rural areas,
arrested and put in jail to get mental health
treatment,” he said. “That shouldn’t be the
case.”
Legislation to help small businesses hurt
by the pandemic is also on the table, he
said, such as extending a law limiting liabil
ity for COVID-19.
It may not happen until a special ses
sion in the fall, but legislators will also be
redrawing district lines for the state House
and Senate and the U.S. House of Represen
tatives. Ralston rejected Democrats’ calls
for an independent redistricting commis
sion, noting that Democrats unilaterally
drew the maps when they were in power.
“Let’s be very frank here,” he said. “Redis
tricting is a political process, and there’s
nothing wrong with that.” [Blake Aued]
College on the Cheap
The University System of Georgia is trying
to put degrees in more students’ hands for
less money, Chancellor Steve Wrigley said
in a keynote address at the University of
Georgia’s Biennial Institute, an every-oth-
er-December training session for new state
legislators.
“We have three goals: Be affordable, be
efficient and graduate more students,” he
said. Enrollment is up 7%, and the number
of degrees bestowed is up 29% in the past
decade. A record 71,000 students graduated
from the state’s 26 public colleges and uni
versities last year, Wrigley said. He touted
decisions not to raise tuition in three of the
past five years and free and low-cost text
books that saved students $27 million.
Keeping costs down “is the best way,
ultimately, to help people earn a degree,”
Wrigley said, noting that college graduates
earn twice as much over a lifetime as high-
school graduates, and unlike those without
a college education, they are almost fully
recovered from the pandemic recession.
“We stress getting a degree because there is
a direct link between education, economic
development and quality of life,” he said.
After going online in March and offering
students and teachers the option of Zoom
classes last fall, UGA and other institutions
will be mostly shifting back to in-person
classes this semester, despite the COVID-
19 pandemic still raging. Although many
teachers and students might not agree, “We
believe in-person instruction is best for the
vast majority of students, and our plan is
to provide a safe return to the classroom,”
Wrigley said. [BA]
Kemp Fends Off Critics
Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp spent most
of his Biennial keynote speech on Dec. 7
defending himself against Republican crit
ics—some of them in the legislature—who
wanted him to do something to overturn
President-elect Joe Biden’s narrow victory
in Georgia.
In addition to commenting on the elec
tion process, Kemp applauded the work he
and the Georgia General Assembly accom
plished in the past year, albeit with a short
ened session.
“By all measures, we were gearing up
for another productive session under the
Gold Dome until the COVID-19 pandemic
reached our state’s borders,” Kemp said.
“None of us could have anticipated that we
would face a once-in-a-century global pan
demic that literally uprooted our economy,
sent our kids home from school for virtual
learning for the balance of the year, and
turned so many norms that we were used to
on their heads in literally just a matter of a
few short weeks.”
Kemp praised the state’s response to the
pandemic, saying it plans to spend a total
of $250 million to “shore up the needs in
our hospitals” before the end of 2021. As
COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the
nation and throughout the state, Kemp said
the legislature will continue to focus on
public health in the next session. He urged
the audience to continue to wear masks,
social distance, wash their hands and follow
the guidelines outlined in state
executive orders. Additionally,
he said people should receive a
flu shot to prevent a “twindemic”
from further testing the limits of
state hospitals.
Kemp also pointed to fos
ter care reform, pay raises for
teachers and legislation passed
to clamp down on human traf
ficking and “gang violence” as
achievements for the past year.
[TW]
HOPE for More
Gambling Revenue?
It’s hard to believe in 2020,
when sports betting has become
ubiquitous and casinos are a
perennial issue at the state
Capitol, but there was a time
when the Georgia Lottery was
controversial.
When then-Gov. Zell Miller
began pushing for it in 1992,
pastors preached against “devil’s
play” on Sundays, according to Cynthia
Wright, who was Miller’s general coun
sel and is now a Fulton County Superior
Court Judge. And state Rep. Alan Powell
(R-Hartswell) said at a Biennial session,
“Everybody loves to bet on sports, and if
you don’t believe me, go to Sunday school
on a Sunday morning, and everybody will
tell you who they bet on Saturday night,”.
Of course, the lottery was eventually
approved, once Miller promised all-pow
erful House Speaker Tom Murphy that it
wouldn’t supplant existing education funds.
Ever since, the scratch from scratch-offs has
funded pre-K education and college scholar
ships for Georgia students.
But it doesn’t go as far as it once did.
Most HOPE recipients no longer get a
full ride, now paying for books and other
expenses out-of-pocket. So lawmakers have
been searching for a way to fill in the gap.
Lottery profits plowed back into edu
cation have grown by leaps and bounds—
from $374 million in 1994 to $1.24 billion
in fiscal year 2020, a record year despite the
he said. “In rural Georgia, you have to get
House Speaker David Ralston (left) and Gov. Brian Kemp during a UGA event at the Classic Center in December.
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FLAGPOLE.COM | JANUARY 13, 2021