U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) this month visited the U.S.-Mexico border and described what he saw as “a complete and total disaster” that threatens national security. Carter, in an emailed newsletter to his constituents, said he joined other members of Congress and toured U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services facilities in Brownsville, Donna, and McAllen, Texas.
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A group directly linked to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated nearly $5.6 million to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office last year. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spent that money on the 2020 presidential election.
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Democrats have repeatedly denounced the new Georgia election integrity law that requires IDs for absentee ballots, but seldom criticize blue states that have comparable laws on their books—or in some cases, laws making it more difficult to vote than in Georgia.
“Overall, the Georgia law is pretty much in the mainstream and is not regressive or restrictive,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told The Daily Signal. “The availability of absentee ballots and early voting is a lot more progressive than what’s in blue states.”
Here’s a look at how the new Georgia election law stacks up to voting laws in Democrat-leaning blue states.
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Georgia officials announced Sunday that SK Innovation will continue to operate its battery manufacturing plant in Jackson County, thus saving 2,600 jobs. Gov. Brian Kemp announced the news in an emailed statement.
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They’re lying about the new voting legislation in Georgia. The only question is whether they will get away with it.
For now, the center is holding. Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, is proud of the work the legislature did to address corruption complaints from both sides. He is willing to tolerate the loss of the MLB All-Star Game and baseball’s amateur draft and has pushed back on remarks by the chairman of Coca-Cola and of Merck and others.
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They’re lying about the new voting legislation in Georgia. The only question is whether they will get away with it.
For now, the center is holding. Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, is proud of the work the legislature did to address corruption complaints from both sides. He is willing to tolerate the loss of the MLB All-Star Game and baseball’s amateur draft and has pushed back on remarks by the chairman of Coca-Cola and of Merck and others.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday announced that he had referred three counties for investigation after they bucked state law and failed to do their absentee ballot transfer forms from last November’s presidential election. Raffensperger, in a press release, identified those three counties as Coffee, Grady, and Taylor. The three counties account for only 0.37 percent of all absentee ballots cast in last year’s election, he said.
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy reportedly wants Hollywood to leave Georgia and set up shop in his state. Murphy cited Georgia’s new voter integrity law, SB 202, as the reason.
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U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) posted — and then deleted — the following tweet on Easter Sunday: “The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.”
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More corporations are speaking out against Georgia’s voter reform law, otherwise known as Senate Bill 202. Officials at Microsoft, American Express, Google and others this week condemned SB 202 as a form of voter suppression.
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Former President Donald Trump has released a statement Friday night about the latest action of Major League Baseball through his Save America PAC, which he formed shortly after leaving office in January.
“Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans, and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter I.D., which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections,” the statement reads. “Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!”
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday evening said Major League Baseball officials caved “to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies.” This, after MLB officials announced earlier in the day that they will relocate the 2021 All-Star Game and MLB Draft, originally scheduled for Atlanta, to another location. They specifically cited Georgia’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202.
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Major League Baseball on Friday announced that it would be pulling its 2021 All-Star game out of Georgia due to concerns over the state’s new voting law passed and signed last month.
“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” Commissioner Robert Manfred said in a statement on Friday. “Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”
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Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer on Wednesday tweeted photos of masked and armed individuals standing outside the Georgia Capitol. Their identities remained a mystery Thursday, even to officials at the Georgia Department of Public Safety (GDPS).
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The Georgia General Assembly has approved a $27.2 billion spending plan for the 2022 fiscal year, which starts July 1.
The Senate and House agreed to spend more money on health care, education, transportation, state positions, internet access and economic initiatives.
The House approved the measure, 148-21, late Wednesday night after it cleared the Senate unanimously, 52-0. Lawmakers now must send the proposal for state spending through June 30, 2022, to Gov. Brian Kemp for consideration.
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Delta Airlines, according to its website, requires its passengers prove they are who they say they are and present a government-issued ID. Coca-Cola officials, according to their corporate website, mandated that anyone who attended their 2020 annual shareholders’ meeting also present proper identification.
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In Savannah this week, a Russian national and his engineering company have admitted to charges that they violated U.S. national security laws. This, according to a press release that staff at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia published on their website this week.
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A Georgia state senator this week responded to the newly-passed Senate Bill 202 voter reform measure with a bill of her own. Georgia State Sen. Sally Harrell (D-Atlanta) this week filed a bill that she said would give county election supervisors and local elections boards the option to allow out-of-precinct voting on Election Day.
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Georgia U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) is co-sponsoring a bill that proposes to encourage businesses to head back to American shores. Ferguson said America needs this during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A Georgia woman has admitted to creating a fake business and using it to receive funding from a federal COVID-19 small business relief program.
This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia published this month.
Tracy Kirkland, 40, of Swainsboro, pled guilty to an Information charging her with wire fraud, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
“As described in court documents and testimony, in August 2020 Kirkland received a federally guaranteed loan for $66,400 under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program comprised of funds appropriated by the CARES Act,” the press release said.
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A new Georgia voter integrity law that requires, among other things, voter ID on absentee ballots, has prompted talk that Major League Baseball and the Professional Golfers’ Association might cancel major events in the Peach State. And at least one major Hollywood director said he now wants nothing to do with Georgia.
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Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel this week defended Georgia Senate Bill 202, which Democrats nationwide have described as a form of voter suppression. As The Georgia Star News reported Saturday, this new voter reform law requires the following:
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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA-10) said recent mass shootings are “a symptom of a profound moral crisis in America – one that cannot be easily solved by simply passing law after law in Washington.”
“George Washington said that ‘religion and morality are indispensable supports’ of a prosperous nation. These two great pillars have been driven from public life, and until they are restored, we cannot remedy the brutal absence of compassion in our society that leads to mass shootings. We must renew our love and faith in both God and each other,” Hice told constituents in an emailed newsletter this week.
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A Georgia House Democrat was arrested Thursday night after repeatedly banging on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s office door.
Rep. Park Cannon (D-GA-58) was banging on the door in protest of an election integrity bill signed into law Thursday. Democrats contend that the bill constitutes “voter suppression.”
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday published a lengthy defense of the state’s new Republican-sponsored election reform bill, which legislators passed Thursday. According to Kemp’s Facebook page, the new law requires the following:
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KENNESAW, Georgia — Georgia conservatives will only win hearts and minds if they fight, display passion, and testify how their ideas and policies can and will shape and impact voters’ personal lives — for the better. That was the message that several speakers relayed Wednesday night at a launch…
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Democrats who represent Georgia in the state’s general assembly as well as the U.S. Congress said this week that recent mass shootings, including the one in Atlanta, necessitate either more gun control or hate crimes laws. State Sen. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek), for instance, filed SB 309, a bill this week that would, if enacted into law, mandate a five-day waiting period for anyone who wants to purchase or transfer certain firearms.
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Members of the Georgia General Assembly filed various bills this week that would, if enacted into law, require law enforcement agencies to speak in languages other than English when working with members of the public. The first bill, SB 308, calls on the Georgia Emergency Communications Authority (GECA) and the state’s 911 systems to have a statewide system of language translation services. The Georgia General Assembly’s website identifies State Sen. Sheikh Rahman (D-Lawrenceville) as the bill’s primary sponsor. Nineteen other state senators, all Democrats, are co-sponsoring the bill.
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Georgia Republicans want to make their elections work better after the 2020 disaster. They’ve proposed sensible measures to eliminate no-excuse absentee ballots, remove dubious ballot drop-off boxes, and reform early voting times. This effort would restore trust in the election process and ensure every ballot is legitimate. But, for some strange reason, this legislation has drawn the ire of the state’s business community.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce last week expressed its “concern and opposition” to these measures in an official statement endorsed by Home Depot and Coca-Cola, two major corporations based in the Peach State. Black Lives Matter, Stacey Abrams, and other left-wing activists are pressuring these corporations and others to do more to oppose these election reform laws. They’re running TV and newspaper ads to strongarm companies into doing their bidding, and there’s a good chance the corporations eventually will bend the knee. Few corporations nowadays can resist the woke mobs.
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A group of red states sued President Biden and members of his administration on Wednesday over his decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, The Hill reported.
The lawsuit is led by Montana and Texas, and backed by 19 other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that Democratic leadership won’t back the effort to remove Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House.
California Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez introduced a resolution Friday to remove Greene from the House, saying the congresswoman “advocated violence against our peers, the Speaker and our government,” CNN reported. The resolution was backed by 72 House Democrats.
“I’m not gonna get into that,” Pelosi said. “Members are very unhappy about what happened here and they can express themselves the way they do. What Mr. Gomez did is his own view, and that is not leadership position.”
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Our decisions, the laws we pass, carry the weight of authority, but only when it’s with the consent of the governed. And that consent is only given when the people have faith that an election was fair and fairly won.
Some of you may think it is sour grapes or whining over the results of the last election. Even if you think the machines can’t be hacked and the votes were fairly counted, we still need the people of Georgia to believe in the process — and right now they are unconvinced.
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The Georgia Senate has approved a bill that collectively would cut income taxes for individuals by more than $600 million over the next five years.
House Bill 593, dubbed the Tax Relief Act of 2021, raises the standard deduction on state income tax returns for a single taxpayer by $800 to $5,400 and by $1,100 to $7,100 for a married couple filing a joint return, starting in the 2022 tax year.
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A new bill in the Georgia General Assembly would, if enacted into law, limit the ability of city housing authorities to operate outside municipal boundaries without authorization. Georgia State Sen. Lindsey Tippins (R-Marietta) is the bill’s primary sponsor, according to the legislature’s website.
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CNN and the Washington Post issued corrections on Monday, revealing that they “misquoted” some of former President Trump’s comments in a December phone call with Frances Watson, Georgia’s top election investigator.
In their original reports, CNN and the Post claimed Trump ordered Watson to “find the fraud,” and if she succeeded, she would be a “national hero.”
The media outlets were forced to issue mea culpas after the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of the December 23 phone call, laying bare what was actually said versus what their anonymous sources claimed was said.
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Georgia will use $277 million in federal coronavirus relief for local transportation projects, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said Monday.
Kemp’s office said the money was set aside for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to offset projected COVID-19-related revenue gaps.
“I am thankful for these one-time federal resources that will help keep Georgians working while also keeping our economy on the road to recovery,” Kemp said.
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The Georgia Secretary of State official who was the anonymous source for a Washington Post story about former U.S. President Donald Trump — a story that people now discredit — said Tuesday the paper got the story correct.
This, aside from a few minor mistakes, said Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, the anonymous source, as The Post confirmed last week.
The Post story cited Trump’s phone call late last year with Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson. During that call, Trump urged Watson to look for fraudulent mail-in ballots in Fulton County. The paper said Trump’s conduct and words — which the paper now admits it took out of context — constituted criminal behavior.
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Henry County Judge Brian Amero on Monday conditionally granted members of a Georgia-based coalition the right to unseal ballots from last November’s presidential election in Fulton County. Members of that group, VOTER GA, may now inspect those ballots for evidence of voter fraud.
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Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) told a nationally-televised audience Sunday that his fellow Republicans should move past former U.S. President Donald Trump and forget passing certain election reform bills. Duncan said this on NBC’s Meet the Press.
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Legislation legalizing sports betting in Georgia has cleared the Georgia Senate and will be considered in the House.
Senate Resolution 135 would amend Georgia’s Constitution to legalize sports betting as a game played through the state lottery, which already is a legal form of gambling in the state.
The resolution cleared the Senate, 41-10, last week. If SR 135 passes the House, Georgians would vote on the constitutional amendment in the 2022 general election. Sports betting would then be legal by January 2023.
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Top officials in Georgia’s film industry this week praised the state as a place where it’s easy to do business during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they said government officials in other states made their jobs difficult. These individuals addressed members of the State House Creative Arts & Entertainment Committee this week.
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump this week suggested that Georgia native and Heisman Trophy winner Hershel Walker represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate. “Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the legendary Herschel Walker ran for the United States Senate in Georgia?” Trump asked in a statement this week.
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The Georgia House approved a bill Monday that would increase foster care adoption tax credits in the state.
House Bill 114 increases the annual tax incentive for adopting a foster child from $2,000 to $6,000. Proponents of the bill, including Gov. Brian Kemp, hope the legislation encourages more Georgians to adopt foster children.
The bill cleared the House, 158-0, without debate.
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Six Georgia House Republicans filed legislation that would provide for a probate court judge to cease acting as a superintendent of elections and then create a board of elections to assume that judge’s prior responsibilities. This, according to a bill that State Rep. Mitchell Scroggins (R-Cartersville) filed this week.
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Six Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly filed legislation late last week that would, if enacted into law, forbid private corporations from running detention facilities. The Georgia General Assembly’s website identifies State Rep. Donna McLeod (D-Lawrenceville) as the bill’s primary sponsor.
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Left-leaning groups have demanded that Georgia’s largest corporate entities, including Coca-Cola and Home Depot, fight two bills in the Georgia General Assembly, which they describe as racist. Members of this coalition made their demands in a full-page ad in The Atlanta Journal Constitution last week. The coalition called out Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, Southern Company, Home Depot, UPS, Aflac, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce.
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Members of the Georgia State Senate Government Oversight Committee this week passed two pieces of legislation that they said will restrict public officials from certain privileges if and when any court officials indict them on felony charges. State Sen. Larry Walker (R-Perry) sponsored both bills, according to the Georgia General Assembly’s website.
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Members of the Georgia State Senate Friday passed SB 200, which would, if enacted into law, protect businesses and churches against government shutdowns during a COVID-19-like pandemic or other health emergency. Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) emailed a press release Friday and said this bill “provides businesses and churches with common-sense protections against government shutdowns.”
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A new bill in the Georgia General Assembly would provide the State Election Board with greater powers to suspend, appoint, and replace superintendents who oversee elections at the city or county level. The Georgia General Assembly’s website identifies State Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) as the sole sponsor.
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Members of the Georgia House of Representatives this week passed four pieces of legislation that they said will cut taxes for Georgia families and businesses and create jobs and expand economic opportunity across the state. These measures include the Tax Relief Act of 2021, the Georgia Economic Recovery Act of 2021, the Georgia Economic Renewal Act of 2021, and the reauthorization of the House Rural Development Council.
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