Lawmakers weigh special session to address voting concerns

Georgia Republicans thought they had patched things up after last year’s chaotic finish.

With high-stakes midterms looming, House and Senate GOP leaders appeared to have reached a detente by striking compromises on the budget and Speaker Jon Burns’ literacy overhaul.

But don’t mistake that truce for peace.

A surprise revolt by Senate Republicans sank a sweeping House property tax bill. In the fallout, both sides failed to agree on how to meet a self-imposed July deadline to move Georgia away from touchscreen voting machines and toward hand-marked paper ballots.

Now Republicans are openly talking about a special session — though much hinges on whether legislative leaders press Gov. Brian Kemp to summon legislators back to Atlanta in May or June.

“We’ll sit down with the governor and take his temperature on where we need to be,” Burns said. “We think we had a reasonable plan that would allow us to move forward with our elections, and have transparency and bring credibility to our elections. You can’t change horses in the middle of the stream.”

House leaders wanted to push the deadline for transitioning from the current touchscreen voting system to 2028, while Senate Republicans sought a faster and broader overhaul to adopt hand-marked paper ballots sooner. In the end, the Senate failed to call the issue to a vote.

That deadline is part of a 2024 state law that includes other GOP priorities. If lawmakers remain deadlocked, the next move will likely fall to the courts. State Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, said that’s precisely what worries him. He warned that a judge could block the entire law.

If it’s up to him, Anderson said, Kemp would summon lawmakers back to Atlanta in a few weeks to hash it out.

“I mean, this is a legislative problem. It’s a legislative solution that has to happen, and that’s the only way we can do that,” Anderson added.

Rebecca Yardley, head of the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, said the session’s chaotic conclusion could have lasting consequences.

“Now we’re left with potential court challenges and the real possibility of a special session to fix what should have been done right the first time,” she said. “Georgians are watching and they won’t forget.”

Friday news quiz

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Good morning! How closely did you follow the news this week? Find out by taking our quiz. You’ll find the answers at the end of the newsletter.

State Reps. Brent Cox and Steven Sainz say Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is punishing them because they have endorsed his rival for governor. How?

Republican Rick Jackson’s campaign paid for a TV ad this week touting a new endorsement. Who was it?

Republican Clay Fuller is facing Democrat Shawn Harris in a runoff next week for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. What prominent Republican has stayed silent on the race?

After a funding impasse caused long lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta City Councilman Byron Amos has an idea on how to prevent it from happening again. What is it?

Judge and jury

Credit: Alyssa Pointer/Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

Credit: Alyssa Pointer/Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

It was Appeals Court Judge Trenton Brown who wrote the bombshell majority opinion in 2024 disqualifying Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from the yearslong election interference case against Trump.

So it raised eyebrows when one of the former defendants in that case, attorney Bob Cheeley, was listed as a co-host of a Thursday fundraiser for Brown’s reelection campaign.

Brown confirmed to us the invite was authentic. He faces a challenge from Will Wooten, an attorney who spent more than two years helping build the case against Trump and his allies.

GOP debate

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

There will be a Republican gubernatorial showdown after all.

A week after billionaire Rick Jackson floated skipping a debate against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other rivals, he said he’d agree to one meeting.

That will be the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate on April 27, the same day that early voting starts ahead of the May 19 primary. Attorney General Chris Carr will also participate.

Jones had challenged Jackson to a debate last week after the health care staffing tycoon questioned the merits of participating in them. He said he didn’t think “Action Jackson is ready for it.”

Jackson said Thursday he’d take part in the debate while also maintaining a busy schedule of town halls, tele-town halls, and other events across Georgia.

“Rick is running to be a voice for all Georgians who feel like they aren’t heard under the Gold Dome because they aren’t special interests and can’t afford a lobbyist,” campaign spokesman Brian Robinson said.

Stay in school

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

State lawmakers rejected a bill that would have punished chronically absent students by potentially withholding their driver’s licenses. But it wasn’t from a lack of trying from state Rep. Kasey Carpenter.

The Dalton Republican admitted on the House floor that he missed 100 days of school when he was in high school, calling it a “personal decision.”

“If we had something like this in place, I probably would have addressed that,” he said.

State Rep. Stacey Evans also missed lots of school, but noted it wasn’t her choice.

“I missed the bus multiple times because I stayed back to help my mother, who was being beaten by my stepfather,” she said. “It’s not a choice.”

The bill passed the state Senate, but failed in the House by a vote of 80-90.

Case dismissed

Credit: Natrice Miller / AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller / AJC

A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit challenging a 2024 law that strengthened activists’ ability to challenge the eligibility of voters.

U.S. District Court Judge Steven D. Grimberg said the plaintiffs never showed they were directly affected by provisions of Senate Bill 189, passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

The law lets county residents request local election boards to remove voter registrations if a voter registers in another state, claims a homestead exemption in a different jurisdiction or registers at a nonresidential address. It has further empowered conservative activists who have filed more than 100,000 registration challenges since 2021. County election boards have rejected most of those efforts.

“Georgia has once again defeated efforts by progressive activists to weaken election integrity,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

Advocacy groups argued another provision of SB 189 violates the rights of homeless voters. It requires such voters to pick up their ballots at county election offices, which the plaintiffs argue makes it harder for voters who don’t have transportation. They argued homeless voters would often use shelters, PO boxes or the address of family and friends to pick up their ballots before the law went into effect.

Grimberg said the groups’ claims were “based on a flawed legal presumption.”

Iran reaction

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

On the day after Trump gave his first White House address on the war in Iran, Democrats in Georgia said the president did not do enough in his speech to get the American people on board.

Shawn Harris, the retired U.S. Army brigadier general running for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 14th District Congressional seat, said Trump never explained why the U.S. went to war in the first place.

“We can win this war militarily, we are going to do that. However, we can lose this war politically, and that’s currently what’s happening on the ground, because the American people don’t understand why we’re in it,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock joined Harris at two get-out-the-vote events in Paulding County on the last day of early voting for the special election runoff in the 14th Congressional District.

Warnock also criticized the president’s remarks as too little, too late.

“In his more honest moments, he calls it a war,” Warnock said of Trump. “I take him at his word, and he hasn’t even bothered to make the case to explain to the American people what changed, what made this urgent.”

The war was clearly weighing on Warnock as he spoke.

“He’s continued his hyperpartisanship, even around the war question,” Warnock said. “He is waging war abroad, while at the same time doing everything he can to convince us that we are at war with each other. That’s a terrible combination.”

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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Answers to this week’s news quiz:

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