Georgia Senate passes bill that will change state's election laws. What to know about HB 397
The bill was amended Wednesday with a 33-23 vote, largely along party lines. Here is what we know about the bill.
House Bill 397, sponsored by Republican Rep. Tim Fleming, proposes increasing paper ballot options, expanding the State Election Board's power, and removing Georgia from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).
The bill removes the State Election Board from the oversight of the Secretary of State, granting the board control over investigative reports and communications.
This bill also prohibits dropping off absentee ballots after the advance voting period. Republicans argue that these changes protect election integrity, citing last year's high voter turnout.
"This protects the integrity of our elections," said Republican Sen. Max Burns.
Democrats contend that the bill suppresses voter turnout and creates unnecessary barriers to voting.
One Democrat, Sen. Jason Esteves, called the bill a "Frankenstein whack-a-mole," highlighting its numerous provisions affecting various aspects of the election process.
Now, the bill is sent back to the House for final passage.
Vanessa Countryman is the Trending Topics Reporter for the Deep South Connect Team Georgia. Email her at Vcountryman@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia elections could drastically change thanks to HB 397
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The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Do Cuomo and Adams secretly want Mamdani to win?
I have worked with a number of very successful candidates and politicians. The one really invaluable skill they all had in common was that they understood basic math. They knew that two plus two often leads to victory, and that two minus one — or three — usually leads to defeat. Addition, subtraction, division. Simple. Unless, to paraphrase a line from 'Top Gun,' 'Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash.' There is no doubt that many New York City residents — as well as countless people around the country and world who now fear for that iconic city's future — have been shaken by a recent Siena College poll showing that far-left socialist Zohran Mamdani leads the race to become the next mayor by 19 points over his next-closest opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Behind them are Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa with 12 percent and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams with 7 percent. Mamdani has the gift of basic math working massively in his favor. In this particular case, division. Without doing a thing, the cliché 'divide and conquer' has been the most important campaign strategy in his quiver. Other than offering the socialist panacea of 'a chicken in every pot' — free stuff to constituents who really know nothing about him — it is the one factor that may make him the next mayor of New York. Mamdani doesn't have to pay for it, focus-group it or expend any political capital. He simply has to sit back and prepare as the respective egos of Cuomo and Adams hand him the keys to Gracie Mansion — and the four years he will need to bring New York City to its knees. Why? Because Cuomo and Adams are now engaged in an ego-fueled blinking contest to see who might exit the race first. That, or they secretly want Mamdani to win. Either way, it's Mamdani with the Cheshire Cat-like smile. This is proving to be an interesting election in that the winning candidate will be the one least despised by the voters. Each of the four major candidates have high negatives and elicit harsh criticism from various blocks of voters. Sadly, forgotten in this high-profile contest between dueling egos are the millions of people in the city who are either barely getting by or suffering in the throes of dysfunction and despair — ironically enough, often caused by the failed policies of previous ego-driven mayors. Many of the residents of New York City who are struggling daily with poverty, crime and lack of education for their children are Black or minority. Ah, but we are seemingly not allowed to talk about that. Many on the left — with a huge assist from Democratic leadership, the media, academia and teachers unions — have gamed it so if you even try to point out the failings of a major American city such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington or Baltimore and who is running it, you risk being labeled a racist, bigot or a misogynist. I don't care what a mayor looks like or how they identify sexually. The only thing I care about is the suffering of millions of constituents. Life for those people is beyond brutal in many cases — an irrefutable fact you almost never hear about, because that would run counter to the various narratives of the left's noise machine. For example, let's look at another major American city that is a poster child for failure, massive dysfunction and turning its back on those most in need: Chicago. A city in which, as I have pointed out in the past, more than 40,000 men, women and children — almost all minority and from the inner city — have been murdered over the last six decades. Extrapolate that number across multiple American inner cities and you have our nation's greatest failing … ever. Except, 'shhhh,' once again, you are not supposed to talk about it. New York City is Chicago on steroids. It has multiple — fixable — problems and life-crushing emergencies across the five boroughs. Unfortunately for those most at-risk inhabitants, many of the people who can help them are entitled elites who exist in bubbles of luxury and safety floating far above the 'unwashed masses' of the city. Two of those elites are Cuomo and Adams. To them, it seems as if the title of 'mayor' is yet one more trophy they can amass, serving either as a potential stepping stone to higher office or to private sector appointments and riches once the last term is complete. In the meantime, those millions of desperately hurting New Yorkers ignored by the elites had better prepare themselves. If (when) Mamdani wins, things will get much worse. 'Free stuff' is the false promise to grab the vote of those New Yorkers. Once Mamdani secures that vote, it will only be about what is best for him and his socialist movement going forward. Those at-risk residents won't even be a fleeting memory.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Notice a theme to Trump's planned takeovers of cities? These Black mayors do.
President Trump has warned he might send the National Guard to other cities. The Black mayors of those cities vow to push back. OAKLAND, California ‒ Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and other officials in this California city are treating President Donald Trump's warning that he might send the National Guard there as more than just an offhand comment. They're bracing for a fight. Lee and other Black mayors, along with civil rights activists and lawmakers across the country are increasingly concerned about Trump singling out cities like Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, DC. All of them are led by Black mayors and all of those leaders are Democrats. 'We just can't help but feel in some kind of way that we're being specifically profiled," said Van R. Johnson, president of the African American Mayors Association and mayor of Savannah, Georgia. 'That's not right. That's not fair. We want our federal government to work with us. We're just a phone call away.' New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, called Trump's takeover of DC's policing a 'blatantly racist and despicable power grab.' 'It won't stop in Washington, DC," she said in a statement. 'The stakes are high not just for Washington, DC, but for the future of democracy in every corner of this country.' Trump used his presidential powers in early August to take over policing in Washington, DC, complaining crime is rampant and officials haven't done enough to address it ‒ despite statistics showing crime in the district is at a 30-year-low. Trump also threatened to deploy the National Guard to help fight crime in other communities. "We're going to take back our capital," Trump said Aug. 11. "And then we'll look at other cities also." He called it a "historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse." Different visions for tackling urban problems White House officials argue the nation's capital is filthy and that Trump has seen that firsthand. In March, Trump signed an executive order titled "Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful," which sets up a task force of federal officials to clean up the city. 'If Democrats had any common sense, they would follow President Trump's lead to crack down on violent crime that has plagued our nation's capital – and Democrat-run cities across the country," Taylor Rogers, White House assistant press secretary, said in an email to USA TODAY. "Instead of criticizing President Trump's popular, tough-on crime policies, they should focus on cleaning up their own cities which are some of the most dangerous places in America." Many big cities are run by Democrats, but both violent and property crimes have fallen nationwide in recent years, federal data shows. Civil rights leaders criticized Trump for portraying cities, especially those led by Black mayors, as crime ridden. "Painting a false picture of the city's largest Black-majority cities, led by Black mayors, is part of the Trump administration's ongoing strategy to exploit racial distrust for political gain,'' Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, and George Lambert, president of the Greater Washington Urban League President, said in a statement. If Trump really wanted to help cities, several mayors argued, he wouldn't be cutting funding for anti-poverty programs and community policing efforts. 'We need to have this federal government invest in cities like Oakland instead of disinvesting in us,' said Lee, who spent 27 years in Congress, including during Trump's first term. 'It doesn't make any sense what this government is doing if they want to see cities not just survive but thrive.' More: 'DC has a right to govern itself': Civil rights leaders denounce Trump's takeover move 'Reasonable people can look at the optics' Trump has yet to publicly bring up race in his criticisms of those cities, but experts point to his history of racially disparaging remarks, including during his first term when he questioned why the United States would let in people from countries like Haiti and parts of Africa, which he referred to using an expletive. Trump also called Baltimore, a predominately Black city, a 'disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess.' While the president didn't specifically mention race then or in his recent references, it's clearly implied, said Jason Williams, a professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Williams said urban centers historically have been code for talking about Black people or communities of color. 'He doesn't necessarily have to say it in order for his base to know what the implications are,' said Williams, adding that most people know DC has a significant Black population. 'It does give him some plausible deniability. Not that I think this president would care." Oakland's Lee told USA TODAY she finds Trump's actions "fearmongering and diversionary." "A lot of what he does is to provoke unrest and that gives him an excuse, so we have to be prepared and ready to fight," she said. Oakland has a contingency plan if Trump tries to send in National Guard, Lee added. When asked if she could provide any details, the mayor replied, 'I'm not at liberty to do that right now. That would be inappropriate at this point.' In DC, Trump justified his actions by citing a recent overnight assault of a former federal official and in Los Angeles, he called in the National Guard to quell civil protests spurred by the aggressive immigration crackdown. He might take advantage of other isolated incidents to target other big cities, said Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice. "It's the red meat that Trump uses to rile up the MAGA base and it is effective as bait only when it's left unchecked," Rahman said. 'We've been here before' Federal officials have sometimes used their powers to undermine Black urban leadership and portray them as chaotic and incompetent or crime prone, Williams said. He pointed to examples such as the urban renewal of the 1960s and 1970s when federal officials displaced Black neighborhoods with highways and a century earlier, after Reconstruction, when governments dismantled post-Civil War gains. 'We've been here before with federal overreach and an attempt to try to roll back hard-won wins," Williams said. The nation's capital has long been in the crosshairs of Trump and GOP congressional leaders. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers threatened to withhold funds if Bowser didn't remove a Black Lives Matter mural from a street near the White House. 'DC has always been this sort of political football for the Republicans,' Williams said. While some Black mayors are concerned about their cities becoming a Trump target, they're continuing their work to combat crime, Johnson, the Savannah mayor, said. 'We're worried about fighting our federal government as well as fighting crime," he said. 'It's a continuous 'what if, what next,' which we think are distractions from what the American people are really talking about.' Johnson said the ideologies and approaches of some Black mayors may be different than Trump's, but that doesn't mean they can't be partners on issues, including crime. 'We understand elections. We're politicians ourselves," he said. 'We're charged with playing with whoever is on the field. When Donald Trump became president, he became president of our cities too.' Contributing: Phillip Bailey
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Trump's inspired Kennedy Center Honors picks spotlight liberals' own performance art
The Kennedy Center Honors are the nation's top performing-arts-achievement awards and their celebration the highlight of the capital's cultural calendar. Yet the honorees are typically announced in that most artless of ways — a press release. Not this year. You'd think liberals who decry conservatives as contemptible Philistines would be pleased to see a Republican president focus the country's attention on the arts with something of a show itself. But no — not when that president is Donald Trump. They slammed the selections too, though the list isn't much different from those under Democratic presidents such as Barack Obama — and reflects a wide swath of what Americans appreciate and admire in the arts. Of course, the small spectacle Trump held Wednesday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts wasn't exactly establishment Washington. The president walked to a podium in front of five pictures on easels, all covered with red cloth. Two attractive women in sleeveless dresses and high heels assisted — distinctly reminiscent of ring girls in boxing and Trump's beloved UFC — dramatically unveiling each honoree on cue. 'Rocky' creator-star Sylvester Stallone, glam-metal rockers KISS, country king George Strait, disco goddess Gloria Gaynor and Broadway luminary Michael Crawford will receive the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors. Trump himself — also the center's chairman — will host the gala tribute Dec. 7, which CBS will air later that month. DC doesn't have a lot of glitz, so the December weekend honorees and those paying tribute to them spend in town is a big deal. I know because I covered the cocktail parties, the rehearsals, the red carpets and more for years when I lived in Washington. And the political and performing elite can't stand the idea of Donald Trump taking part in the ritzy rituals. Trump didn't attend a single Honors gala in his first term after 2017 honoree 'All in the Family' creator Norman Lear said he'd skip any White House event to protest the president. But Trump 2.0 is bolder and brasher — and wants to make real his 'vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture,' as he put it. The media fawned over First Lady Michelle Obama's White House Kitchen Garden. They published deep think pieces about her husband's summer playlists. But the same people who believe right-wingers want to cut all cultural education are annoyed when a GOP president spends an hour talking about great artists. 'You might be wondering why you haven't heard much about important issues like inflation, health care or infrastructure lately, but there's a very good reason: Donald Trump doesn't care,' late-night talker Seth Meyers said. Conservatives 'want to go on Fox News and whine about woke,' he continued. 'This is what the right really cares about. This is why Trump is spending his precious time announcing the Kennedy Center Honors.' Cue the subtle — and not-so-subtle — digs about the choices. 'The line-up explains a lot about him, his power and why he's president,' CNN's Stephen Collinson intoned. It's 'more populist than 'high' culture.' 'At the Kennedy Center, Trump Puts His Pop Culture Obsession on Display,' The New York Times headlined its story. Time Senior Correspondent Philip Elliott declared, 'The Kennedy Center Honors Is Now Just Another Trump Show,' and likened the Florida man to Stalin, who made the genius Shostakovich's life a living nightmare. This year's choices, Elliott wrote, 'signal yet the latest example of Trump putting his thumb on the scale of American culture and tossing it back to yesteryear.' Who's going to tell the storied Time the Kennedy Center Honors are lifetime-achievement awards whose winners always send us 'back to yesteryear'? Liberals howling this isn't the highfalutin' list it should be forget the first awardees under Obama included Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro and Mel 'Blazing Saddles' Brooks. LL Cool J won in 2017. Trump's is not a way-out-there list. It's true one spot usually goes to classical music or dance, and I'm disappointed that's missing — though to Trump, Michael Crawford is operatic. And he did originate the title role of 'The Phantom of the Opera,' which Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for his then-wife, classical soprano Sarah Brightman. KISS is an inspired choice — a great American story. Two Jewish New York kids whose families had fled the Holocaust, Stanley Bert Eisen and Chaim Witz, transformed themselves into the makeup-laden, otherworldly Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. And in doing so, they transformed concert touring itself. Texan George Strait helped bring back a very American genre as a trailblazer in neotraditional country in the 1980s, when pop crossovers were stealing stages in Nashville and beyond. Now young country-not-crossover stars such as Zach Top and Parker McCollum cite his influence. As a Strait fan from Alberta, the Texas of Canada, told me, 'People like him because he's real. He's not fake ass. And he can actually sing.' Authenticity — it reminds me of my time covering the Honors. At the various events, the rest of the press wanted to talk only to the cool kids. At the cocktail party the year Steve Martin won, for example, their sights were set on well-known actors. That let me have Ricky Jay, Steve Martin's friend who appeared with him in the David Mamet film 'The Spanish Prisoner,' all to myself. He was one of the greatest magicians of our time, a learned man with an amazing medieval collection. Another year, it was just me and an AP reporter left on the red carpet for Chris Cornell, there to perform for The Who — the super famous stars had walked it already. The AP fellow knew nothing about him, so I was able to ask all of the questions of one of rock's greatest voices. Speaking of David Mamet, can Trump turn his attention to Mark Twain Prize for American Humor next? The Kennedy Center refuses to give it to politically incorrect geniuses like him and Woody Allen. Washington could certainly use some intelligent laughs these days.
