Georgia Today: State election board faces scrutiny; Harris to campaign in GA; RIP Russell Malone

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Monday, Au. 26. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, the state election board faces renewed scrutiny over what some are calling partisan rulemaking. Vice President Harris plans to campaign in Georgia. And we remember Georgia born jazz guitarist Russell Malone. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Democrats in the state legislature are urging Gov. Brian Kemp to investigate and remove three State Election Board members aligned with former President Donald Trump. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports. The Democrats accused the board members of ethics violations.

Sarah Kallis: Sen. Nabilah Islam Parks filed a formal complaint against election board members Janice Johnson, Janelle King and Rick Jeffries. She is alleging that they violated the Open Meetings Act for a July meeting that was not posted on the board website, and have passed rules that could delay election certification.

Nabilah Islam Parks: The people of Georgia deserve leaders who respect the law, uphold the precious and sacred right to vote and protect our democracy, not individuals who conspired behind closed doors to disenfranchise voters.

Sarah Kallis: Other prominent Democrats, like U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath and Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler are backing the complaint. Kemp's office said they have received the complaint in our consulting with the attorney general's office to determine if they have the authority to respond. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.

Credit: Stephen Fowler/GPB News

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Those rules that Sarah Kallis just mentioned include requiring county officials to make a "reasonable inquiry" before certifying results. Some say this rule and others go beyond what the board is legally empowered to do, and more rules may be coming at the planned board meeting next month. So what are the limits of the board's powers? For insight, we turn to Lori Ringhand. She's a distinguished teaching professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. Welcome to the program.

Lori Ringhand: My pleasure.

Peter Biello: So, broadly speaking, what is within the State Election Board's purview and what kind of thing falls outside it?

Lori Ringhand: So the State Elections Board is charged by statute with making rules governing aspects of our elections. What they're doing here is they're making rules that are about what the county boards do in terms of tabulation and canvasing. What that means is that the elections board only has authority to make rules about things that state law gives it power over. And in terms of the rules about canvasing, what state law says is that these county canvasses — there at the county elections board — they're just about tabulations. They're literally about making sure that the numbers that you are reporting up as a county board are accurate based on the face of the votes in the face of the information that you've given. So, in other words, this is not the place where there's a substantive evaluation of underlying claims of wrongdoing in the election. This is kind of math.

Peter Biello: So it seems like that's the point of disagreement. The State Election Board would argue that, yes, allowing for a "reasonable inquiry" — which is one of these new rules — is allowed because that could influence the final count.

Lori Ringhand: I am uncertain about exactly whether this goes beyond the statutory authority or not. There is ambiguity in what the statute permits. It kind of depends on how this is going to play in practice. The question is a "reasonable inquiry" about what? Right? It has to be a reasonable inquiry about something that the county boards are actually tasked with doing. So the reasonable inquiry has to be in the scope of the authority of those boards. And those boards are tasked with receiving, tabulating and pushing up returns. And there are things that are within their zone of reasonable inquiry that are relating to that type of issue. It's not about what they are or whether they themselves are valid. It's about whether the numbers match up. So reasonable inquiry can't go beyond that task because then it wouldn't be reasonable.

Peter Biello: Do these rules set up towns and counties for conflict? In other words, would a town report a certain number and then the county, now empowered to question it, submit a different number?

Lori Ringhand: Well, I think that's the fear, and that's what Secretary Raffensperger has been talking about as one of his concerns with some of these new rules — is that they might create more confusion and more delay. And the Georgia elections bill, SB 202, the big bill that was passed after the 2020 election — that statute, passed by the Georgia state Legislature, is very clear that Georgia elections should come in in a timely manner. So to the extent that new rules introduce delay, that's also a point where they could be in some conflict with what the statute actually authorizes.

Peter Biello: Georgia's Attorney General Chris Carr pushed back on the State Election Board's effort to reopen an investigation into Fulton County's handling of the 2020 election. That investigation was closed in May. The board said it would pursue the investigation with its own attorney if the AG declined, and the AG said, no, you can't do that. Where could a conflict between the AG's office and the State Elections Board be headed?

Lori Ringhand: The elections board can't do anything that it's not authorized to do by the state legislature. It's a creature of the state legislature. So if there is a conflict about the scope of its authority — and in this case, it would be the scope of its — whether it has the power to kind of boss the attorney general around, that would ultimately get resolved in court.

Peter Biello: There is another State Election Board meeting coming up on Sept. 20. What legal complications could arise with rule changes made so close to an election? Because that Sept. 20 meeting would be after the deadline for shipping out overseas ballots. What complications could arise there?

Lori Ringhand: Well, the overseas ballot deadline is actually set by federal law. So if Georgia tried to or if the State Elections Board tried to change a rule that would render those ballots unable to be cast or counted, they'd be in conflict with federal law. And I would expect if federal court would step in, if necessary, to ensure that the federal law protecting overseas and military ballots was implemented here in Georgia. That judicial process, unfortunately, would be the last resort. We would hope we wouldn't get there. But that's a federal law that Georgia's obligated to comply with.

Peter Biello: Lori Ringhand, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. Thank you so much for speaking with me about this.

Lori Ringhand: My pleasure.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: A lawsuit challenging a new Georgia commission aimed at disciplining and removing elected local prosecutors will be allowed to continue. A Fulton County state judge on Friday denied a motion to dismiss the case. Republicans say the commission is aimed at, quote, "rogue prosecutors," while a bipartisan group of district attorney says it threatens their independence.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: A Georgia Senate committee says conditions in Atlanta's Fulton County Jail could be improved by more cooperation among local officials. The panel was formed after a string of deaths of incarcerated people. It released findings Friday after hearing testimony from jail officials and other experts. Cataula State Sen. Randy Robertson chaired the committee.

Randy Robertson: And the primary issue I think you'll see in the recommendations is the dysfunction that exists between county agencies.

Peter Biello: The panel also found overcrowding at the jail has eased since the committee was formed last fall.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz are campaigning in Georgia this week. The campaign said yesterday that the two will kick off a bus tour through South Georgia on Wednesday, and Harris will host a rally in Savannah on Thursday night. Harris was set to visit Savannah earlier this month, but the trip was postponed because of Tropical Storm Debby.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Every year, parents of school-aged kids and health care providers are faced with meeting vaccine requirements. In Georgia and nationwide, certain vaccine mandates have been in place for years. That's limited disease prevalence but has not translated to widespread public education. GPB's Sofi Gratas has more.

Sofi Gratas: Last year's routine vaccine uptake in Georgia was one of the lowest, at around 88%, and nationwide uptake has lagged behind pre-pandemic levels. A recent CDC study shows adults under 50 are less likely to know about deadly, vaccine-preventable diseases. Georgina Peacock, with the CDC's Immunization Services, says that's in part because vaccines are so effective, but that information gaps can be just as dangerous.

Georgina Peacock: Even health care providers or doctors may not be familiar with what, say, a measles rash looks like. So educating them about the different consequences of these diseases is really important.

Sofi Gratas: The fifth reported case of measles in Georgia this year follows the CDC's latest push to inform physicians and families of disease risk. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Federal officials are reevaluating their decision to approve permits needed for water supply at the site of Hyundai's massive electric vehicle plant, under construction in Southeast Georgia. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told local and state economic development agencies on Friday that new information has surfaced about how the project could affect local water supplies. The agency is asking local and state officials to provide environmental assessments. The move comes after the Ogeechee Riverkeeper threatened a lawsuit over the permits. The group accuses the agency of overlooking the human and environmental impacts of withdrawing more than 6 million gallons of water per day on the region's underground water source. The president and CEO of Savannah Area Economic Development Authority says, quote, "there's enough water for everyone," and he's confident the reevaluation won't hold up the project.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Acclaimed Georgia born jazz guitarist Russell Malone has died. Malone was born in Albany and lived in Atlanta for more than a decade. During a career that took off in the 1990s, he performed and toured with many jazz greats, including Harry Connick Jr., Ron Carter, and others. Birmingham, Alabama jazz guitarist Eric Essix met Malone when Malone was on tour with Diana Krall in the late 1990s.

Eric Essix: There weren't that many young jazz guitar players that I had to look up to at that time. My heroes were, of course, George Benson and Wes Montgomery. Anthony Burrell and Russell just kind of embodied all of those guys as a young guitar player, and just seeing him up there on stage was such an inspiration to me.

Peter Biello: Malone won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Performance in 1998 for his album Havana. The New York Times reports he died on Friday from a sudden heart attack while on tour in Japan. Russell Malone was 60 years old.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: In sports, the Atlanta Dream come to State Farm Arena tonight for a matchup against the Indiana Fever. The Dream, which usually plays at the 3,500 seat Gateway Center Arena, moved to State Farm in anticipation of larger crowds following Fever rookie Caitlin Clark's record-setting college career. The first time the two teams met at State Farm Arena on June 21, more than 17,000 fans attended, the most for a WNBA game in Georgia. Tonight's game features the last three No. 1 overall draft picks in the WNBA:The Fever's Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark and the Dream's Rhyne Howard. The game also will pay tribute to the legendary 1996 USA women's basketball Olympic team. And in baseball, D.J. Herz struck out eight over five innings as the Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 5 to 1 to avoid a three-game sweep. Herz allowed one hit from Orlando Arcia and walked three in his 14th major league start. Matt Olson hit his 22nd homer for Atlanta this year, which had won six of seven. The Braves opened a three-game series against the Twins in Minnesota tonight, before heading to Philadelphia for a four game series against the Phillies.

Peter Biello: And that is a wrap on this edition of Georgia Today, but we hope you'll come back tomorrow. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast now. That way we will pop up automatically in your feed tomorrow afternoon. And if you want to check out the latest news, you can always go to GPB.org/news anytime. If you have feedback or story ideas — something we should know about and report on — send us a note via email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

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