BRACK: 3 key issues will come before Georgia legislature this year

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

JAN. 15, 2021  |  Look out for at least three big issues to come before the Georgia Legislature this year.

The most important issue will be the reapportioning of the U.S. House of Representatives, and also both the Georgia Senate and House. That’s why this years’ Legislature will have more sway over our state than do most year’s terms as it determines voting districts. In effect, the Republican Party will have super influence for the next 10 years since the GOP will control how district lines are drawn.

The other two major items we see the Legislature taking on are:

1. Rural broadband impact: let’s push for Georgia to offer its rural areas far better access to the internet world, and in effect, a better connection to broadband, so that these communities can greatly improve their economic conditions.
2. Elections: changes in the way Georgia’s elections are conducted. Our state needs to make sure people are not disenfranchised in any changes proposed.

In reality, the elections of 2020 were amazingly efficient. We say that since there were several challenges to the elections, though these challenges did not produce any significant realignment of voting.  

When the Covid pandemic arrived in 2020, it led to how Georgians voted.  In both the primary, the General Election, and the runoff races in January, a majority of Georgians stayed away from the polls on Election Day.  They choose either to vote an absentee ballot, or went to the polls in the three weeks prior to Election Day. A smaller percentage of people voted on election day than ever before in Georgia.

Take the voting in Gwinnett as an example.  We’ll use the David Perdue-Jon Ossoff contest as an example, though the Kelly Loeffler-Raphael Warnock race has similar results. Look at these methods: 

Number voting on election day:  97,082

Number voting in advance:         171,033

Number voting absentee:           101,533

Provisional ballots (mostly military):       742

Those manning the 159 precincts in Gwinnett on election day had it relatively easy. Only 26.2 percent of all those voting choose to go to the polls on that Tuesday. Nearly three-fourths of the votes in Gwinnett either marked ballots in advanced voting or used an absentee ballot.  

This says that the voters in Gwinnett, for whatever reason, thought it was either easiest, or best, or most reasonable, to vote prior to election day. Of course, the pandemic may have played a big part in this decision not to go to the polls on election day. It is also an indication that Gwinnettians like the choice they have in voting.

The current Georgia voting regulations are a product of a 2005 newly-empowered Republican Party, setting  out the method to vote by absentee ballot. Yet when in 2020 Democrats got more than twice as many absentee votes than Republicans, the GOP started raising questions about the voting process, and suggested changes were needed to it.

So what can we expect from the Republican-controlled Legislature this year?  Look for the GOP to find some way to make it harder to vote by absentee. But they should go slow on drastically changing the voting procedures, for all across Georgia, it appears that the people like having choices on how to vote. Restricting such a process is unwise.

One change might make sense: requiring some form of photograph identification prior to getting an absentee ballot.

But overall: watch it when the Legislature starts changing our Georgia voting rules. After all, the elections went smoothly this year. 

• Have a comment?  Send to: elliott@brack.net