Controversial elections bills head for finish line in Ga. General Assembly
♦ The post invites the community to help celebrate its 75th anniversary April 10.
ATLANTA — Controversial legislation to overhaul voting by mail in Georgia and how voters can cast early ballots is racing toward the finish line in the General Assembly amid a sharp outcry from local voting-rights and church groups.
Two bills, both proposing dozens of changes to Georgia’s election system, recently cleared major hurdles in the current legislative session and are on a collision course to final passage as top lawmakers in the state Senate and House of Representatives decide which measures to keep and which to scrap.
Most likely on the chopping block is a proposal to end Georgians’ ability to vote by mail without giving a reason that has drawn a loud outcry. Democratic leaders call the move an attempt by state Republicans to gut mail-in voting after absentee ballots drove historic wins in the 2020 election cycle.
Separately, church leaders and Democratic backers of former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams are building up grassroots efforts to combat proposals to clamp down on line warming and weekend voting, portraying those Republican-brought measures as rooted in voter suppression.
Critics have also condemned the Gop-led election bills as attempts to curb voter turnout in Black and other minority communities that tend to lean Democratic, particularly after Black voters and mail-in ballots helped flip the presidency and both of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats in the 2020 elections.
“These bills are directly evil,” said Rev. Ferrell Malone Sr., the senior pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Waycross. “They are literally evil, and they’re coming from men and women who say they are Christians.”
Republican leaders in the House and Senate have held firm in their argument that the legislative proposals are needed to protect voter integrity in Georgia after the 2020 elections sparked doubts over the security of mail-in voting and identity verification.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-carrollton, has dismissed attacks on an omnibus elections bill he is sponsoring in the Senate that includes repealing noexcuse absentee voting, as well as a new rule requiring Georgians to provide a driver’s license or state ID card number in order to request an absentee ballot.
Dugan and supporters of those measures in the Republican-controlled General Assembly also highlight the strain that processing millions of absentee ballots put on local election workers tasked with running three weeks of early voting and managing Election Day for several elections in the 2020 cycle.
“If we keep using more and more of the absentee (ballots), you’re going to overwhelm the counties multiple different ways, in the workload and the cost,” Dugan said. “The highest number of rejected ballots are mail-in absentee ballots, even with the curing process.”
“This is about (how) the method of voting in Georgia has significantly changed over the last 10 years.”
The proposal in Dugan’s bill that has come under the most criticism would limit absentee voting only to those who physically cannot go to the polls on Election Day or for early voting, ending the no-excuse absentee voting option that Republicans passed into state law in 2005.
The measure has also drawn pushback from top state Republicans including House Speaker David Ralston, R-blue Ridge, and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who refused to preside over the Senate vote on Dugan’s bill last week in protest of the no-excuse absentee voting repeal.
Dugan has since backed off that proposal, noting that lawmakers will likely move to strip out the no-excuse absentee ban as his bill moves in the House.
“I want a good reform bill to go through,” Dugan said. “And if I’m going to get everything killed because of something that I feel is important that a majority of both chambers don’t necessarily agree with, then I’m not going to die on that hill for ego.”
It has not been settled among Republican leaders yet whether to push Dugan’s bill or a separate 66-page omnibus measure sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming, R-harlem, as the final set of proposals that lawmakers are expected to negotiate before passing onto Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
Fleming, whose office did not respond to requests for an interview for this story, has pitched several contentious changes that include requiring counties to pick either a Saturday or a Sunday for early voting and forbidding people from giving food or drinks to voters waiting in line outside polling places.
Those two proposals have prompted some of the fiercest backlash against the Gop-led elections bills by voting-rights advocates who blast them as blatant attempts to depress voter turnout in Democraticleaning minority neighborhoods that often face long lines at polling places.
“It’s just a very cruel thing to do to people who are good Samaritans and have their faith move them to help people exercise their right to vote,” said Hillary Holley, organizing director for the group Fair Fight Action that Abrams founded following her loss to Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial election.
“Seeing the state try to punish volunteers for helping people who are on the brink of passing out in line to vote is just horrifying.”
Abrams’ Fair Fight group, as well as local churches and other grassroots organizations, are now mobilizing to drum up widespread public opposition to state Republicans’ elections bills, including by pressuring large Georgia-based companies including Coca-cola, Delta and Southern Company to take a stand against the bills.
Already, pressure by protesters in Southeast Georgia has spurred Hancock County officials to formally request that Fleming resign from his post as the county’s attorney on grounds that his measure is at odds with the county’s majority-black population.
“We stand on the cusp of something great in history,” said Rev. Willie Wiley, presiding elder of the Augusta-sparta district of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. “Don’t allow ambitious people who have not the interests of Georgians at heart to rob us of this unique opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Dugan says he’s weathering the storm of criticism and personal attacks his bill has inspired, while focusing on helping steer whichever set of proposals most lawmakers in the General Assembly want to see cross the finish line later this month, whether they come from Fleming’s bill or his own.
“My concern is really not the politics of it,” Dugan said. “My concern is actually having something that is beneficial for the state moving forward.”
Unused for the better part of five years, Calhoun’s VFW building on West Line Street wasn’t in the greatest shape when a handful of folks started the latest attempt at a reopening.
“The charter was suspended in 2016 and it’s been reinstated numerous times,” Post Commander Pro Tem John Brown said. “The problem is there hasn’t been a lot of community support, and that’s because of the way it was shut down. I wasn’t here, but I’ve been told it just left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.”
Since the original charter suspension, the several attempts at reopening the veterans club just haven’t been able to gain enough traction to keep the doors open. When the latest crew arrived, the roof leaked, there were some mold issues and a few unwelcomed critters had made their home inside the building since being left unused during the pandemic.
“The last group had a good flow going, but then COVID hit,” Brown said.
The most recent attempt at getting Calhoun’s VFW back on track seems to be gaining steam. The post has a soft reopening planned for next month and the community is invited to check out their progress while also having a little family fun.
As part of the post’s upcoming 75th anniversary, the VFW will be hosting a community day, Saturday, April 10, from noon to 4 p.m. at 406 W. Line St.
The event will include a cornhole tournament, petting zoo, pallet board painting, water balloon toss, a cookie decorating station and more. Food and drink will also be available. The post building will be open for tours as well so members of the community can see the progress being made.
Officially known as the Renis Barrett Post 5376, the club was posthumously named for 24-year-old Pvt. Renis W. Barrett, a Calhoun native killed in the Philippines in July of 1945. According to Brown, the land for the VFW post as well as the adjacent National Guard Armory were donated by the Barrett family.
It’s more than just a physical renewal the pro tem team is working toward, however. It’ll be about better connecting different generations of veterans to one another, making the club’s racial diversity match the community around it, and focusing much more on outreach to local veterans in need.
“The goal is to really change the image of the VFW and veterans clubs in general, so it can start making money
to stay open and get started with our community outreach,” Brown said. “Right now it’s all volunteer work and a lot of our own money.”
Along with their own time and money, much needed help has been coming in from local businesses donating work, resources and funds. If you drive by the VFW these days, you’ll see plenty of love being given to those businesses in the form of signs and banners scattered around the property.
To survive in the long term, the post also will need new members to join and take interest. Brown says he’s rounded up about 30 new members for the post’s rebirth and he’s still hoping for more from all generations.
“There’s a divide there, so we need to bridge that gap,” he said. “We also need to respect everything past members have put into the organization while bringing
it into the future. We have two Vietnam Vets who are still in leadership here, but they’re ready to turn it over. They’ve been a big help.”
A major focus going forward will be helping local veterans with VA medical and educational benefit claims, as well as counseling and other needs.
“We have a large homeless population and a lot of them are veterans,” Post Quartermaster Pro Tem Randy Boatner said. “We want to do outreach for them.”
That plan includes a dedicated office and eventually a full time person with training in that area.
To get things rolling financially, Brown said it will take a team effort, which will mean getting the VFW’S Auxiliary group back in action, a task that will likely be taken on by local veteran and business owner Travis Queen.
“We really want to grow that and use those resources to start some of our outreach,” Brown said.
Auxiliary groups are open a more broad base than VFW post membership, including certain family members of veterans.
Out front of the post is a war memorial, which has also been getting some much needed attention.
“The base just accumulated water for years and it turned the mortar into sand,” Brown said. “We’re working on taking all the tiles up and we’ll see what it looks like and we’ll go from there.”
The last war memorialized on the monument is Vietnam, so the group also hopes to eventually get it up to date in that aspect.
Continued community access to the post’s baseball field is also a focus for Calhoun’s VFW, but there’s work to be done in that area as well, including moving incorrectly placed foul lines, dugout reconstruction, new fencing and general field conditions. Future plans also include outdoor seating and eating areas, as well as a concourse pavilion in the outfield area for games and gatherings.
Donations to the VFW’S efforts to reopen can be made out to Renis Barrett VFW Post 5376 Inc. and mailed to 406 W. Line St., Calhoun, GA 30701, or through Venmo @Vfwcalhoun. Cash donations can also be dropped off at the event on April 10.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is sending the first $1,400 stimulus payments under President Joe Biden’s pandemic-relief package out on Friday, with some people receiving them as soon as this weekend — a stream of income that economists anticipate will juice the country’s recovery in coming months.
“The first batch of payments will be sent by direct deposit, which some recipients will start receiving as early as this weekend, and with more receiving this coming week,” the IRS said in a statement Friday. “Additional batches of payments will be sent in the coming weeks by direct deposit and through the mail as a check or debit card. The vast majority of these payments will be by direct deposit.”
A Treasury official told reporters the department didn’t yet have an estimate for how many payments would be sent in the first round on Friday.
Some payments may appear as pending or as provisional payments in bank accounts before the official payment date of March 17, according to the IRS. Starting on Monday, recipients will be able to check the status of their money on the IRS’S “Get My Payment” online portal, a Treasury official told reporters.
Biden signed the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation into law Thursday, a package that includes more than $410 billion of direct payments for most Americans. The payments mark the third direct cash infusion in less than a year.
The IRS has not yet released a date for when Social Security and other federal beneficiaries will receive their payments, which will be sent the same way as their regular benefits. A payment date for this group will be announced shortly, the agency said.
Payments in the form of checks or debit cards will take longer than electronic transfers. Those mailed payments will start arriving before the end of the month, an IRS official told reporters. The government also does not yet have a breakdown of how many people will receive an electronic transfer, versus the money in the mail.
For those whose tax returns have already been filed and processed, the IRS will use income data for 2020 to determine eligibility and size of payments. For people who have yet to file, the IRS will review 2019 tax data to determine the payments. The IRS will review 2020 returns as they come in to see if people are owed more, and automatically deliver supplemental payments without taxpayers needing to take further action, the agency official said.
IRS and Treasury officials said they’ve also taken steps to ensure payments don’t go to temporary bank accounts that have since been closed. Some individuals who used H&R Block and Intuit’s Turbotax to prepare their returns complained that previous stimulus payments went to accounts set up by the preparer that were no longer active.
The IRS and Treasury worked with financial institutions to address the issue, and developed a way to quickly reroute payments sent to incorrect or closed bank accounts back to the government — allowing them to be reissued.