Georgia Today: Accurate Voter Rolls, Atlanta Musicians Face Tragedy, VP Harris Back in Georgia

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB news. Today is Monday, July 29. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in Georgia tomorrow. The secretary of state's office launches an effort it says will make the state's voter rolls more accurate. And a study in Macon-Bibb County looks at how childhood trauma affects mental health. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

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ANDREW HARNIK / AP

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Peter Biello: The Georgia secretary of state's office today launched a new way for Georgia voters to cancel their own voter registrations. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.

Sarah Kallis: The new website allows Georgia voters to log in with personal details and cancel their voter registration. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that the online process makes it easier to ensure voter rolls are accurate, and that voters may want to cancel their registrations when they move out of state. Once a voter submits their information, it sends the request for cancellation to the county registrar to remove the voters' names from the rolls. The current process for removing inactive voters involves mailing a postcard to the voters address, warning them that their registration will be canceled. Raffensperger also said that the process avoids using mail service, which he says has become increasingly unreliable. The Georgia Senate Democrats are calling for the page to be removed, saying conspiracy theorists could use it to remove voters. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.

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Peter Biello: Vice President Kamala Harris is planning a campaign stop in Atlanta tomorrow. It'll be her sixth stop in Georgia this year, but the first as a presidential candidate. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a potential Harris running mate, campaigned for the vice president in Cumming yesterday. In other news from the campaign trail, Vice President Harris has selected a Columbus man to serve as a senior advisor to her presidential campaign. Kamau Marshall was previously a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Education, and he also served as the director of strategic communications for President Joe Biden's campaign in 2020. Also worth noting that the Harris campaign has raised $200 million since she emerged as the likely Democratic presidential nominee last week. The campaign announced the fundraising total yesterday. Two-thirds of those donations came from people making their first donation this election cycle. More than 170,000 volunteers have signed up to help the Harris campaign with phone banking, canvasing and other get out the vote efforts.

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Peter Biello: Three members of the Atlanta-based Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame quartet The Nelons and the chairman of the Georgia Board of Corrections are among seven people killed in a plane crash in Wyoming on Friday. Jason and Kelly Nelon Clark, as well as daughter Amber Nelon Kistler, were killed in the crash, according to Autum Nelon Streetman, the fourth member of the group, who was not on the aircraft. The Nelons were inducted to the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016 and were winners of 10 GMA Dove Awards, including multiple Song of the Year and Album of the Year awards. Also killed in the crash, were Nelon Kistler's husband, Nathan Kistler, Melodi Hodges, and the chairman of the Georgia Board of Corrections Larry Haynie and his wife, Melissa. In a statement, Gov. Brian Kemp remembered Haynie for, quote, "a career of valued public service."

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Peter Biello: Officials in Macon-Bibb County have released the results of a pilot study into how childhood trauma affects the mental health of people in the community. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.

Grant Blankenship: Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACES, surveys assess how growing up with things like abusive or neglectful caregivers or without enough to eat correlate to adult health risks. Just over 100 people answered the countywide ACES survey from Bibb County government and the group Macon Mental Health Matters. Gloria Cisse, of Macon Mental Health Matters says the average results depict a group with a 14 times higher risk of suicide and about twice the risk for diseases of the lungs or liver. Cissé says the next challenge is using ACES scores to break cycles of trauma citywide.

Gloria Cisse: How we can help you to mitigate the symptoms that are associated with the ACES score, but also how we can help them to learn to be that one person that children need.

Grant Blankenship: The full Macon-Bibb County ACES pilot study report will be released this week. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

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Peter Biello: Some residents in Rome's Floyd County are pushing back against plans for the site of the Rome Speedway. Business at the 58-year-old racetrack has slowed, and owners are asking local officials to rezone the more than 100-acre property and adjacent land from suburban residential to heavy industrial. It comes as Northwest Georgia attracts new solar panel and battery manufacturers. But speedway neighbor Kristi Carroll says it comes at a price that she hopes residents will speak up about.

Christie Carrol: This is the primary gateway into Rome, Ga., and you have a voice to tell the commissioners what you want that to look like. If you want heavy manufacturing on either side of 411, or do you want it to be an aesthetically pleasing, you know, trip into town?

Peter Biello: The county's planning staff recommends denying the rezoning request, because they don't have enough information about how the site would be used. The speedway and the Rome Floyd Development Authority have not responded to requests for comment.

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Peter Biello: Georgia-Florida restaurant chain Surcheros is expanding to Tennessee. The company, founded in South Georgia's Douglas and now headquartered in Alpharetta, north of Atlanta, said last week it signed a deal with the Nashville franchisee to expand the brand into the Volunteer State with seven new units. Surcheros currently operates 30 restaurants and plans to open 100 more over the next five years.

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Peter Biello: A Georgia gymnast will be coming home with a bronze medal from the Olympic Games in Paris. NBC reports the Team USA men's gymnastics team finished behind Japan and China in men's team finals today. Three-time U.S. champion Brody Malone of Summerville in Northwest Georgia is part of that team. The 24-year-old struggled during qualifying rounds on Saturday, falling twice on high bar and once on pommel horse, and is unlikely to win an individual medal. The bronze for the team is the first Olympic medal for U.S. men's gymnastics since 2008.

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Peter Biello: In baseball, the Braves take on the Brewers in Milwaukee tonight for the first of a three-game series. Grant Holmes is scheduled to get the start for the Braves. The Conway, S.C., native is usually a reliever, but Atlanta's starting rotation has been under strain lately, with Max Fried on the injured list and now Reynaldo Lopez listed as day-to-day as he has some right forearm tightness checked out. Lopez came out of yesterday's game against the Mets after allowing only three hits across three scoreless innings, striking out two. The Braves beat the Mets yesterday, evening the four-game series over the weekend at two games apiece. The Braves once again hold the top National League wild card, removed one and a half games ahead of New York for second place in the NL East.

And that's all we've got for this edition of Georgia Today, but more coming your way tomorrow. If you want to stay on top of the news, the best thing to do is to subscribe to this podcast now. We will pop up automatically in your feed tomorrow when you do. And if you want to learn more about any of these stories now or just catch the latest, check out all the news at gpb.org/news. As always, we value your feedback. Send it to us by email. Address is Georgia today@gpb.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.