Morning Reads for National Signing Day (February 3)
Happy National Signing Day, everyone! I’ll be cheering on all the new Dawgs and Heels, naturally. Which teams are you watching?
It’s also National Women Physicians Day, and this year it’s rather more special than normal, as today would be Elizabeth Blackwell’s 200th birthday. National Women Physicians Day is on February 3rd in honor of Dr. Blackwell, who was the first woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States in 1849. Today, women outnumber men in medical school, so we’ll be seeing even more women physicians in the near future. In the midst of a pandemic, I’m especially grateful to them for their hard work and dedication.
Let’s get on to the news.
Pat Conroy
- Georgia’s groundhog, General Beauregard Lee, did not see his shadow yesterday – meaning early spring – but Punxsutawney Phil up in Pennsylvania did see his shadow – meaning six more weeks of winter. Which groundhog is right? We’ll see!
- Staten Island Chuck agrees with ours, if that matters.
- It looks like one of the cases of voter fraud in Georgia could well be the boy (or man, in this case) who cried wolf, Lin Wood.
- If you’re at all curious as to what Georgia defines as residency, here’s that section of the state code. Yikes for him, yeah?
- Senators Ossoff and Warnock now have their committee assignments.
- Some Georgia judges are ignoring the CDC’s moratorium order on evictions during the pandemic.
- It could take years to determine the cause of last week’s fatal nitrogen gas leak at the Foundation Food Group’s Gainesville poultry processing plant.
- The Johns Creek man who was caught trying to sell 50 million non-existent N95 masks to a foreign government was sentenced in Savannah yesterday.
- Governor Kemp is trying to entice retired teachers back into the classroom.
- Here’s a good explanation of why Georgia’s vaccine rollout has been so chaotic. (Alternate link.)
- Georgia is two years behind on submitting an improvement plan for the state’s Medicaid delivery.
- Stuckey’s has bought the Atwell Pecan Company in Wrens, so now they will produce some of their confections in house. (Alternate link.)
- New COVID cases remain above the national average in Georgia, so be smart!
Alice Walker
- Officer Brian Sicknick’s remains are lying in honor at the U.S. Capitol.
- The Senate has reached a power-sharing deal, allowing Democrats to take control of committees.
- The Biden Administration will be reassessing the government’s response to domestic terrorism in the wake of the January 6th insurrection.
- While President Biden is striking a conciliatory tone with Republicans, Senate Democrats are still setting up a path to pass his stimulus plan through reconciliation. (Alternate link.)
- The House GOP leadership has, so far, punted on a decision in regards to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
- Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is trying to make a deal with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, wherein Greene would be removed from the Ed & Labor Committee, but keep her position on the Budget Committee and possibly get a new assignment elsewhere.
- Rep. Liz Cheney is also under fire, and she’s working to shore up support against those who want her out of a leadership role.
- On a party line vote, the House has agreed to levy up to $10,000 fines on lawmakers who skirt the security screenings to get onto the Floor. (Alternate link.)
- 59% of the people who would benefit from an increase in minimum wage are women.
- A study has found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine slows the spread of the virus.
- Myanmar police are using an import-export charge to detain the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for two weeks amid a military coup.
- World Health Organization investigators are visiting the lab in Wuhan, China that has been at the center of speculation about COVID’s origins.
Flannery O’Connor
- This South Carolina woman explains how she escaped QAnon’s clutches.
About Author
Holly Croft
Holly is an archivist at one of Georgia's institutions of higher learning. In a past life, she was a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She cares a lot about records management, open records laws, and privacy laws. Political persuasion? It's complicated. What's not complicated is that she's proudly equal parts Bulldog and Tar Heel.
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Lin Wood needs an intervention or a brain scan or both.
The Georgia GOP has lost any claim to honesty or moral character. Anyone on here who supports the Georgia GOP also has lost any claim to honesty or moral character.
These bills are all cancelling previous Republican bills
SB 69 would get rid of automatic voter registration, also known as the “Motor Voter Law,” that updates or creates a voter registration application any time someone interacts with the Department of Driver Services.
SB 70 would prohibit voters who participated in a November statewide general election outside of Georgia from being eligible to vote in any Georgia runoff for U.S. House or Senate, after the Jan. 5 dual Senate runoff stoked internet fears and rumors among both parties that out-of-state voters would flood Georgia and influence the outcome.
SB 71 would eliminate no-excuse absentee by mail voting, instead limiting it to those who are disabled, “required to be absent” from their precinct, work in elections, have a religious reason or are 75 or older.
SB 72 would require county elections officials to receive monthly updates about residents who have died and determine if they need to be removed from the voter rolls. (This is already required by the SOS).
SB 73 would only allow the Secretary of State’s office, county elections officials, candidates or candidate campaign committees to send out paper absentee ballot applications to voters, prohibiting third-party and nonprofit groups from sending mailers.
SB 74 would expand access for partisan poll watchers to view the vote counting process, allowing elections officials to restrict what poll watchers can see or do but directing them to be “as minimal as possible.”
SB 67, would require Georgians that are not military or overseas voters to include either their driver’s license or state ID number on the absentee application or include a photocopy of an acceptable voter ID you would need to show to vote in person.
https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/02/02/georgia-senate-republicans-unveil-bills-make-voting-harder
Hopefully: The GOP bills could run into trouble, though, if Congress restores part of the voting rights act that would require federal approval for Georgia to change voting requirements that restrict access.
Democrats need to delay the passing of the above bills as much as possible.
I personally prefer to focus responsibility at the most precise level, in this case when looking at draft bills, I prefer focus on the sponsors ad co-sponsors rather than the entire party. Now if a bill passes, the scope obviously expands.
But offhand, I’m pretty sure if they end Motor Voter implementation, there will be significant appurtenant federal funds lost. Plus it would look obviously stupid and vindictive and unnecessary to many- so doubt will be embraced by many. Sure hope I’m not wrong about that!
I also have no problem with spelling out some protocols/rules for election observation. As long as poll workers can do their jobs and access is equally applied, better to write the rules out than have people sue or argue about it after the fact.
Having driver’s license or State ID # on absentees is a tiny logical increment away from allowing only photo ID. In the totality of the world of elections, this may only be a slightly insidious requirement. With voter ID as it is already, it even has a sense of logic. I wonder if there is any analogous date available, like drops in voting after ID implemented. Surely there would be; perhaps a new model would show estimate effects on voting. More hopeful, I would say likely better to be agreeable to it, in exchange for more assistance for voter registration outreach, like the mobile outreach they did when ID requirement 1st started (If memory serves- when was that?) That exchange would actually be an overall positive, theoretically a kind of win-win.
Prior absentee applications did require driver’s license # and voter registration #. No problem using those to verify the applications were legit. The photo ID is an unnecessary obstacle. The multiple state audits proved everything works as is, without any proof of irregularities or fraud. Stating disproved allegations of irregularities over and over does not warrant legislation clearly designed to restrict voter participation.
I support restricting absentee ballot applications being sent by third parties. I found it creepy to get a prefilled form from a nefarious 3rd party organization that was well hidden from who they were. This is an abuse of voter information.
Tomorrow the house votes on whether to take Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments away. I am sure it will pass probably with votes from some Republicans. It will be interesting to see if any GA GOP votes for it. I sincerely doubt any will.
GOP ‘censure’ is the new cancel culture.