Georgia Today: Trump rallies in Duluth; CDC recommends pneumonia vaccine; Poll watchers vs. observers

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Oct. 24. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, former President Trump rallies in Duluth as Election Day draws near. The CDC is now recommending pneumonia vaccines for people over 50. And what's the difference between a poll watcher and a poll observer? These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Former President Donald Trump last night implored his supporters in Georgia to vote, quote, "whichever way you want to do it." His comments in Duluth, north of Atlanta, are a turn from when he blamed his 2020 loss on mail-in ballots. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.

Sarah Kallis: Trump addressed an enthusiastic crowd of thousands Wednesday night at a joint rally with conservative group Turning Point USA. Georgia singer Jason Aldean was one of several people who spoke before Trump.

Jason Aldean: He's a president who, when knocked down, gets back up, raises his fists in the air and says, "Fight!"

Sarah Kallis: TV personality Tucker Carlson, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also addressed the crowd. Trump spent much of his speech doubling down on anti-immigrant rhetoric. He blamed the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley on White House border policies. He also called for the death penalty for undocumented immigrants convicted of killing U.S. citizens and falsely claimed that the U.S. is a, quote, "occupied territory."

Donald Trump: Immediately upon taking the oath of office, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.

Sarah Kallis: Trump also said that he will lower taxes, reduce regulations on businesses and increase fracking and drilling. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to hold her own Atlanta-area rally with former President Barack Obama this week as well. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Duluth.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Georgia's secretary of state's office says it acted quickly earlier this month to thwart an attempt to crash one of its election websites. The agency's chief operating officer said today the site never crashed, no data was compromised and it's unclear where the attack originated. The attack was limited to an online portal where voters request an absentee ballot.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Hurricane Helene ripped through Georgia a month ago Saturday, and many businesses are back to normal, but still facing problems. Chief among them: funding their recovery efforts. Valdosta Lounge Chamber of Commerce President Christie Moore says unlike Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to individuals, Small Business Administration loans aren't quick and must be paid back.

Christie Moore: All they do is a loan. And so, you know, many of our businesses already had a COVID economic injury loan. Many of them also have a loan from Hurricane Idalia. And so many of them aren't necessarily going to try to take another loan because truly the debt ratio is too high.

Peter Biello: She says, although her office still doesn't have phone service, almost all shops in town are back open. And now, after Helene's devastation, there's a potential drought. Very few Georgia rain gauges have reported anything more than trace amounts of rain since Helene. And combined with the forecast La Nina this winter, Georgia Tech regional planning professor Jairo Garcia says he is worried.

Jairo Garcia: South Georgia will have up to 70% likely below average of rain between December and February. So that means that those conditions, if they can be extended, it can be the step to a huge drought.

Peter Biello: This weekend's forecast shows a slight chance for rain in North Georgia.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: Some Georgia SNAP recipients who lost food during power outages caused by Hurricane Helene have until tomorrow to apply for replacement food. To qualify, residents must live in one of the 61 qualifying counties and have lost power for four hours or more. The Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children's Services sought the extension to help low-income families. Residents can fill out the food loss replacement form on the DFCS website or submit a printed application in person at a local DFCS office or by mail.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending people over 50 get vaccinated against pneumonia. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports the agency's medical experts are changing their advice from the previous age of 65.

Ellen Eldridge: The Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices told the CDC that people should start getting the shot at 50 because while many people think pneumonia is just a bad cold, the disease can be deadly. Karen Jones is the executive director of the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging. She also developed pneumonia before the age of 65.

Karen Jones: It took me months to recover, and I just had long-term effects from having the disease so the second that I could get vaccinated, I did because I never want to put my body through that sort of torture again.

Ellen Eldridge: The CDC says lowering the age will give more people the opportunity to protect themselves. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Caption

Ahmaud Arbery

Credit: GPB file photo

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Three white men serving life sentences for chasing and killing Ahmad Arbery are asking a Georgia judge for a new trial. Greg and Travis McMichael and William Roddie Bryan appeared today before the same judge who sentenced them three years ago. A jury convicted the McMichaels and Bryan of murdering the 25-year-old Black man in 2020. Their attorneys are making a range of arguments for a new trial, from a tainted jury to ineffective trial attorneys. The men were also convicted of federal hate crimes in a separate trial. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in March from attorneys asking the court to overturn the hate crimes verdict. A decision on that is still pending.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Georgia is getting $66 million in additional federal funds to help improve local water systems. The Environmental Protection Agency announced the grants and loans this week. The money is part of the just over $6 billion in funds the agency has released since the summer to shore up drinking water supplies nationwide. Early releases of the funding already have been used in Northwest Georgia's Dalton and Calhoun. Utilities in those communities are using the federal funds to test new solutions for filtering out so-called forever chemicals that the region's carpet industry left in the water supply for decades.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Georgia environmental regulators have revoked a permit for a wood pellet manufacturing plants in Telfair County. This follows a legal challenge to the project. The State Environmental Protection Division approved a modification of Telfair Forest Products' air quality permit last July without requiring the company to install legally required pollution controls or conduct air impact analyzes. The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the environmental group Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, challenged the permit amendment. They argued pollution would double in violation of federal law. While environmental groups oppose the wood pellet manufacturing process because of pollution, supporters say the rural counties need the jobs.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: Atlanta will have a naval vessel named for it again. U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro announced yesterday that the Navy will build a nuclear attack submarine that will be known as the USS Atlanta. It will be the fifth U.S. Navy vessel named for Georgia's largest city. The most recent was a submarine that served from 1982 to 1999. It wasn't immediately clear when the construction will start on the submarine, when it will enter service or how much it may cost.

Caption

Polls

Story 10:

Peter Biello: Poll watchers play an important role in free and fair elections, but they are not the same as poll observers when it comes to what they're able to do and how they're trained. For more on the difference between the two, let's turn to Chris Harvey. He's the former elections director for Georgia secretary of state. Welcome to the program.

Chris Harvey: Glad to be here.

Peter Biello: So tell us, what's the difference between a poll watcher and a poll observer?

Chris Harvey: Okay. A poll watcher is somebody who's specifically designated by a candidate or a party to have an official presence in a polling place. They have to be designated in advance. They have to receive some training on their duties and obligations. They have to be identified at a polling place. And they're allowed to essentially have what amounts to backstage access. They get to go beyond the line of the enclosed space where the machines are. They can wander around. They can observe. They can take notes. They can't interfere. They're not supposed to be talking with people. They can't campaign. They can't do any of that stuff. But they're essentially the eyes and ears of the candidates and the campaigns in each individual polling place.

Peter Biello: And when you say they are identified, that means they have a badge of some kind, right? Where you can see that they are a poll watcher?

Chris Harvey: Correct. They're issued a nametag or a badge by the elections office. And they're required to wear that while they're in the polling place, acting as a poll watcher. And essentially, anybody that's not a poll watcher, an election official or a voter is a member of the public. And certainly members of the public have the right to observe what's going on at a polling place. They're open to the public and they should be open to the public. But the regular observer has to stay beyond the enclosed space, has to stay outside of the enclosed space. They can't wander around the machines. They don't have the kind of access that a poll watcher does.

Peter Biello: And when it comes to interactions with voters themselves, what's allowed for both poll watchers and poll observers? Are they allowed to talk to voters and question them or no?

Chris Harvey: When a poll watcher is behind the enclosed space, they're not allowed to have interactions with voters. They're not really supposed to be talking with election officials. They're to sort of be seen and not heard. They can make notes. They can leave the enclosed space and go out and they can make phone calls and do anything that a member of the public can do when they're not behind the enclosed space. If they were to see something and they wanted to report it back to their campaign or their candidate, they could leave the polling place, make a phone call and then return to the polling place and resume their silent duties as a poll watcher. Members of the public? There's no prohibition necessarily against talking with people. There are prohibitions against doing any type of soliciting or campaigning within 150 feet of a polling place and certainly inside a polling place. So there wouldn't be anything wrong with just an observer who wants to go down and watch. If they want to have a conversation with others, there's nothing prohibited about that as long as they're not engaging in talking about or against a candidate, soliciting votes. They're not intimidating, they're not otherwise breaking the law. Their presence is fine.

Peter Biello: What goes into the training for poll watchers?

Chris Harvey: Well, poll watchers' training is set up, I believe, by the secretary of state's office. They essentially provide it to the parties and then the parties and the candidates are responsible for making sure their poll watchers receive the training. And it's largely kind of what I described. It's described in the law — in 21-2-408 — where it talks about essentially the responsibilities and restrictions on poll watchers. And so the poll watchers would be told things like, “Hey, you can't talk to voters when you're in the enclosed space. You can't advocate for or against candidates when you're in the enclosed space. You can't — if you have a problem, you're to report it to the election superintendent, not to the to the poll manager.” And [they’ll] also be told that the poll manager does have the authority to have the poll watcher removed if they persist in doing things they're not supposed to do. The goal is to certainly allow the public viewing and the specific access that the candidates and campaigns have while keeping kind of everybody in line with what's allowed in the law.

Peter Biello: So it seems like official poll watchers have a clear chain of command. If they spot a problem, there's a set of steps they need to take to report that problem. Is there a similar set of steps available for the self-appointed poll observers who are just members of the public who are watching from a distance about, you know, if they see something that they feel like might be not right, there's a clear set of steps they can take to report it?

Chris Harvey: I guess that depends because there's really no such thing as a poll observer other than a member of the public. I mean, somebody may — may sort of, you know, deem themselves a poll watcher or a poll observer or an election auditor. People use different terms. If they were to see something, they could certainly, again, step outside of a polling place. They could call the media, they could call a campaign, they could call anybody and say, "Hey, you know, I see this going on at this polling place. Somebody needs to be aware of it." They could certainly bring something to the attention of an elected official, for example, if they were to see a dangerous situation. The problem could come, if a poll observer, or election observer started to interfere with the process. If they started questioning election officials, "Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? Why can't this person do that?" And they sort of insert themselves in the process. That's when it could become problematic. And unfortunately, people that just appoint themselves as election observers or election monitors and go to a polling place may or may not be aware of any of this stuff. And they may think that they can — they can step in and they can intervene and they can get in other people's business when they're voting. And that's not really the way the system is designed. There are specific laws against interfering with elections and depending on to what extent they take it, they could possibly get into that problem.

Peter Biello: So what should people do if they feel a poll watcher is overstepping and getting in the way of their right to vote?

Chris Harvey: Designated poll watcher or a poll observer or both? Or either?

Peter Biello: Let's do both.

Chris Harvey: Certainly anything that a poll watcher does that interferes with the process should be brought to the attention of election official. And frankly, that's the same thing that should happen with a non-designated poll watcher. If a member of the public is there and they're interfering with the process, they should certainly bring it to the attention of the election officials.

Peter Biello: Are poll watchers paid? And if so, who pays them?

Chris Harvey: There's nothing in the code that allows or prohibits poll watchers, if a party or a candidate hires people to work in their campaign, and they choose to pay them like they would pay other members of their campaign. That's a matter between those parties. They're certainly not paid by the state or the county.

Peter Biello: [And could poll] “observers” be paid if a party or candidate wants them to be paid?

Chris Harvey: Presumably, or they could be contracted by somebody, but any payment would be outside of the election system.

Peter Biello: Is there anything else about poll watching, poll observing that you feel is important for the public to know as early voting continues and Nov. 5 approaches?

Chris Harvey: You know, I think it’s important for people to understand — both for people that consider themselves or plan on being poll observers and somebody just wants to go down and see what's going on. I think that's fine. The system is designed to be open to the public and it should be that way. But I think it's really important that people understand that the voting area, the polling place, is really designed and protected by law to be an area where you're not subject to harassment. You're not subject to intimidation, you're not subject to campaigning. You're really supposed to be sort of shrouded from those outside influences. And so if somebody is going down to observe that's one thing. If somebody is going down to try to have an impact, that's a little bit of a different scenario.

Peter Biello: Chris Harvey is the former elections director for Georgia, secretary of state. Thank you so much for speaking with me.

Chris Harvey: It's my pleasure. Thank you.

Peter Biello: And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you being there. And if you want to learn more about any of the top stories in Georgia, look no further than GPB.org/news. And subscribing to this podcast is a great way to stay on top of the news. When you do, we'll pop up in your podcast feed automatically every weekday afternoon and your feedback is always welcome. If you send it via email and go to the whole team. The email address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

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