State Senate report: Week eleven.
Monday, March 18, 2024:
It’s not broke. Stop fixing it.
It’s a metaphor. About things being black and white. True or not. You know, like Trump’s Big Lie about elections and how sick people are of our legislators heeding falsehoods as excuses for bad policy. Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
With just five days—spread over two weeks—left in this year’s legislative session, the state Senate’s Republican leadership is pushing through a few more unnecessary and un-informed voting bills which might make our elections less secure and more expensive.
On Monday, for instance, the Senate Ethics committee reviewed:
HB 974, requiring the Secretary of State’s office to post digital images of all cast ballots online.
HB 977, expanding the number of elections subject to risk-limiting audits.
HB 1207, allowing superintendents to proof ballots, establishing a U.S. citizenship requirements for election-related positions, reducing the number of voting machine per location, and expanding poll-watcher access.
The citizenship requirement for poll workers rankled some critics who reminded lawmakers, polling places often struggle to find adequate staff and Green Card holders are legally allowed to work, even if they’re not allowed to vote.
Likewise, HB 1207 allows official poll watchers to sit or stand “as close as is practicable” to election workers, raising concerns about voter confidentiality shared by HB 974’s requirement that ballot images—censored for personally identifiable information—be posted online so citizens can do their own audits.
Currently, state law requires one voting machine per every 250 voters at a polling location. Rick Williams (R-25) argued, however, that lines and backups are the result of check-in computers, and that voting machines aren’t used at the target rate. Though, if we were to remedy the problem with the check-in machines, wouldn’t we then need these exceed voting machines?
Disclaimer: I support fair, accessible, safe, and transparent elections—even if my candidate loses. If there’s verifiable evidence of fraud or abuse, it should be all our priorities to fix it. Disinformation and its resulting sentiment doesn’t warrant a change in technology or process—it warrants a change in honesty.
The Current session ends on March 28—Sine Die.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
“Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before
Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less
Than I used to, my love”
—The Smiths
Photo by Braydon Anderson on Unsplash
On Tuesday, the Senate Ethics committee discussed HB 976, strengthening the ability of conservative activists to challenge voter eligibility on the basis of residency.
The Republican House bill is a response to claims of voter registration inaccuracies and concerns about election fraud, though—and stop me if you’ve heard this one—there’s no evidence of mass voting fraud through outdated voter registrations. Supporters argue challenges are necessary when Georgia voters register in another state, claim homestead exemptions in different jurisdictions, or register at nonresidential addresses.
Democrats oppose the bill, arguing it disenfranchises legitimate voters, could lead to excessive challenges, and burdens innocent voters. And voting-rights groups warn such challenges hinder eligible voters and are often based on inaccurate online information. Jason Esteves (D-6) reminded his colleagues:
This would further allow people—usually one or two people—to challenge tens of thousands of electors … The burden of having to prove your residence is a burden not only on that voter who is innocent and not doing anything other than exercising their right, but it’s also a cost on counties.
The bill puts a hold on challenges within 45 days of an election and offers protections for certain nomads (e.g., college students, military). A previous version of the bill included automatically eliminating voter registrations in response to a challenge but this has since been stricken.
Currently, one of the main ways the state manages voter rolls is by tracking residency through new and updated licenses. Ironically, many of the same senators arguing for HB 976 also supported SB 221, eliminating automatic voter registration upon a driver’s license renewal. It’s almost like there no actual solution in mind, just a bunch of performative BS. huh.
HB 976 is part of broader efforts by our Republican-led legislature to adjust election laws ahead of November. The bill is still in committee and could be voted on Thursday.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024:
The Frankenbill monster.
Since they didn’t release the contents of their Frankenbill in advance of yesterday’s hearing, I assume this is the level of legislative sophistication Burt Jones (Lt Gov) and Clint Dixon (R-45) brought to their additions.
“I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other.”
―Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
Lt Gov, false elector, insurrectionist, presumptive 2026 gubernatorial candidate, and all-around asshole Burt Jones threw his weight, yesterday, behind a terrifying Frankenbill that combines a number of hateful MAGA issues into one appalling bill while simultaneously bypassing the legislative process he’s supposed to honor and direct in the Senate.
Under the direction of Clint Dixon (R-45), chairman of the Educations & Youth committee, HB 1104, has been gutted of its original intent—providing mental health and suicide prevention resources to public- and private-school student athletes—and transformed into a vehicle for failed Republican culture-war fetish issues. As a result, the bill now:
bans transgender students from using bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletics programs aligned with their gender identity;
prohibits sex education before middle school (despite puberty’s insistence on showing up in elementary school);
requires parents to opt-in to sex education at any level;
requires schools to inform parents of every book their child borrows from a school library;
and strips the bill’s original mental-health and suicide-prevention requirements for private schools.
All this in the shadow of reports corelating state-legislative disenfranchisements of trans youth with the rise in anti-trans attacks in schools, such as the tragic death of Nex Benedict, a non-binary student from Oklahoma beaten in the bathroom her state forced them to use.
As gutted and stuffed, HB 1104 will harm children and make their schools less safe and less educational. It’s the monstrous continuation of a trend John Albers (R-56) and his ilk began last year when they sponsored SB 140, blocking trans youth from life-saving healthcare.
This anti-democratic “Frankenbill” tactic is often used late in the session to bypass the bi-cameral committee process and push radical measures.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you live in the 56 (East Cobb, Roswell, Woodstock, and surrounding):
Contact John Albers’ senate office at 404-463-8055 or john.albers@senate.ga.gov.
State your name.
Tell him you’re a constituent of SD56.
Tell him you strongly oppose HB 1104 and want him to stand up for transgender Georgians of all ages and to oppose censorship in any form.
And if you can, join Georgia Equality and pack the Senate on Thursday.
Thursday, March 21, 2024:
“We’re here to punish” … the police?
I guess it’s time for some last-minute performative legislation, cynically profiting off the tragic death of a young woman. Though I didn’t see Albers’ #defundthepolice move coming. Why is that men with such tiny hands make such poor politicians? Photo of our opponent by Bob Andres (AJC)
On Thursday, the state Senate passed two spiteful immigration bills:
HB 301, allowing residents to sue local “Sanctuary Cities” for not following immigration laws
HB 1105, requiring local law-enforcement to enforce immigration law when detaining non-citizens
In both cases, offending departments would be stripped of state and non-state funding.
WHY ARE THESE BILLS EMPTY & PERFORMATIVE?
John Albers (R-56) rushed these bills through his Public Safety committee and used gut and stuff techniques to hide amendments and to avoid peer and public review, betraying the democratic process.
Supporters of these bills argue sheriffs don’t cooperate with ICE but that claim isn’t backed up by facts. A dozen sheriffs interviewed by the AJC and 120 members of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association—including those in Athens-Clarke County where Laken Riley was recently murdered—already cooperate with ICE.
Sanctuary cities have been illegal in Georgia for 15 years.
Immigration is a federal issue, not a state issue. It’s fine to ask our authorities to cooperate with federal law—the Federal Supremacy Clause implies it—but to make departments financial accountable for laws our legislators aren’t responsible for sets them up to fail.
John McLaurin (D-14) pointed out, these bills are more about punishing disobedient sheriffs than addressing illegal immigration:
All this bill does is threaten complete financial extinction of local governments—state and federal funding—and threaten the removal of every elected official who serves the local government if they don’t follow existing law.
In defense of the bills, Albers said, “We’re here to punish criminals … That’s what we do.”
But who is his criminal, exactly?
It’s perhaps too nuanced for our opponent, but many of the Founding Fathers—influenced by Enlightenment ideals—believed not only in upholding the rule of law but also in rehabilitation and redemption for lawbreakers. This perspective is reflected in the design of early American penal systems which often included education, vocational training, and religious instruction.
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for state senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
—
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
