Georgia Today: Presidential candidates make final appeals in GA; New AI tech for vidalia onions

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Monday, Nov. 4. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, the two major party candidates spent the weekend making their final appeals to Georgia voters. The state's top election official says the state is ready for Election Day tomorrow. And a new AI technology will help Vidalia onion farmers identify issues with their crops. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump visited Georgia over the weekend in one last push for votes ahead of Election Day tomorrow. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.

Sarah Kallis: Harris pitched to thousands of voters at the Atlanta Civic Center on Saturday afternoon.

Kamala Harris: We are not going back!

Sarah Kallis: She focused her speech on abortion access and health care. Atlanta voter Heather Stone says she's feeling hopeful about the election.

Heather Stone: I feel better about it than I did in '16 for Hillary.

Sarah Kallis: On Sunday evening, Trump also rallied thousands of voters in Macon.

Donald Trump: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Sarah Kallis: Trump focused his speech on immigration and brought the family of a Georgia woman allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant on stage. Rally goer. Crystal Whittaker from Gray says she already voted early for the former president.

Crystal Whitaker: President Trump is willing to do more for a lot of people than their own family members are willing to do for them.

Sarah Kallis: Over 4 million voters have already cast their ballots. Tomorrow, Election Day, is the final opportunity to vote. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Georgia's top election official says the state is ready for polls to open tomorrow. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger today addressed what's already been record-shattering turnout.

Brad Raffensperger: If you're one of the 4 million voters who have voted early, congratulations. You have made history.

Peter Biello: He also warned against election-related disinformation.

Brad Raffensperger: And so I think we as Americans, we just need to sit back some time and make sure that you're really hearing the truth, because there's a lot of bad people out there that want to just kind of get us fighting amongst ourselves.

Peter Biello: GPB has you covered with the latest on election night, starting at 7 p.m. on GPB Radio and at 6 p.m. on GPB TV.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Black voters will play an important role in this year's presidential election, both here in Georgia and across the country. Some polls have indicated that black support for Democratic candidates has softened over the years. But with scant polling information available, it's difficult to tell the extent to which this is happening. Here with more is Dr. Adrienne Jones. She's an assistant professor of political science at Morehouse College. Welcome to the program.

Dr. Adrienne Jones: Thank you.

Peter Biello: So you’ve done significant academic research on Black voters' feelings about elections and voting habits. What have you found about Black voters' willingness to engage in the process at all, regardless of the candidate?

Dr. Adrienne Jones: So I would say that the United States has a voter apathy problem overall that preceded the former president's attempt to stoke doubt in our election systems, which from all research, is very strong and accurate. Here in the state of Georgia, we have a really strong voting system that does take accurate information about who's cast ballots and how those ballots have been cast. But nonetheless, I think that there are swaths of voters — and I think that Black people have found themselves sometimes among those people — who feel like their votes really don't matter. So one of the things that I've tried to do over the last couple of years is to really make it clear how close some of these elections are of late, including the presidential election in Georgia in 2020 [and] to inform people that their votes in these particular elections really are making a difference.

Peter Biello: Some polls have found that Black support for Democratic candidates has been softening every four years or so for the past few cycles. Is that what you're seeing?

Dr. Adrienne Jones: I do see that, and I think that that makes some sense, right? Neither of the major political parties is pro-Black. You know, today Black voters are purported and I think accurately referred to as the "backbone of the Democratic Party." But Blackness continues to be as such that the party has rarely, if ever, created policies and positions and sort of very outwardly made it clear their support for the Black community and its needs.

Peter Biello: What will you be watching for on Election Day? Is there a particular data point that you think will reveal something larger about the state of the election or the state of Georgia? Or both?

Dr. Adrienne Jones: I think in terms of the state of the election and the importance of some of these issues to people will be: What does Black support look like for the Democratic Party? What does white female support look like for Kamala Harris, in particular? You know, we are divided along some very racial and gender lines in this particular election. The issue of masculinity is on the table. And this idea that white women might be intimidated not to vote for Kamala Harris, despite their feeling that the reproductive rights issues are incredibly important because of the gender hierarchy, I'll be very interested in seeing how that shakes out. And also that we have been having the discussion — again, inside of the patriarchal masculinity lens — about whether Black men will vote for the Democratic Party and for Kamala Harris in particular, for similar reasons. Because I think that, again, we are talking politics, but these social norms that a lot of times we don't talk about are also coloring how people feel and how they're responding to what their ballot should be.

Peter Biello: Well, Dr. Adrienne Jones, assistant professor of political science at Morehouse College, thank you so much for speaking with me.

Dr. Adrienne Jones: You're very welcome.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: The Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of a company planning to build a Southwest Georgia facility to breed monkeys for medical research. The ruling last week comes after months of legal wrangling over the legality of bonds Decatur County promised the company, Safer Human Medicine. The company's president, David Yost, touts the project's potential economic benefits, including about 300 jobs.

David Jost: We spent time learning about this community. We spent time getting to know the officials and getting to know some of the local businesspeople. We tried to do it the right way.

Peter Biello: But project opponents worry about its potential environmental, health and quality of life impacts. They have vowed to appeal their case over the project's bonds to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Georgia's Vidalia onion is a labor intensive crop, but researchers at the University of Georgia are working on a new way to give farmers a heads up when something might be wrong with the iconic vegetable. GPB's Chase McGee has more.

Chase McGee: As early as next year, farmers could scan rows of Vidalia onions with an AI-powered app on their smartphone, which could tell them which ones are likely deceased. It's part of a three year research project from the University of Georgia. The goal is to make it easier to direct farmers where they need to treat rows with preventative sprays. Dr. Luan Oliveira is one of the researchers. He says their biggest challenge is finding good photos to train the AI.

Dr. Luan Oliveira: It would require a lot of training, so we need a lot of versions of the same disease, a lot of different pictures, all from different angles, from the same thing.

Chase McGee: If all goes as planned, the research team will develop a robot to wander the rows detecting disease all on their own. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened a new disaster recovery center in East Georgia's Emanuel County. The site in Swainsboro is aimed at helping residents navigate federal aid made available since Hurricane Helene. It brings to 15 the number of centers the agency has opened in Georgia.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Atlanta's Fox Theatre has awarded a half million dollars to help preserve historic theaters around the state. The theater said Friday the single year grants through its Fox Gives program are aimed at enriching downtown areas. The awards include historic theaters in Southeast Georgia's Evans County, Northeast George's Hall County and in West Georgia's Troup County.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: In sports, Shaun de Silva scored with about a minute to go in stoppage time shortly after a goal by Lionel Messi was waved off by a clear offside, giving ninth-seated Atlanta United a 2 to 1 victory Saturday over Inter Miami. With the victory, Atlanta has evened the best-of-three MLS playoff series at one game apiece and forced the decisive game next Saturday in South Florida. And Braves pitcher Chris Sale has won the National League Gold Glove. The award sponsored by glove maker Rawlings honors the best defensive player in each position in each league. It's his first Gold Glove award. First baseman Matt Olson had been nominated for the award, but it went to Christian Walker of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And that's all we've got for this edition of Georgia Today. But if you want to follow the latest news tomorrow, the best thing to do is to subscribe to this podcast. And if you want to check out the latest headlines any time, visit GPB.org/news. Now, just as a reminder, tomorrow is Election Day, and after you vote, make sure you tune in to GPB from 7 to 8, as we'll be broadcasting live from our headquarters in Atlanta, bringing you the latest analysis of the results as they come in. We'll also be hearing from GPB reporters stationed throughout the state. Again, that's tomorrow night on GPB Radio from 7 to 8. You could also stream it at GPB.org and view it on our Facebook page as well. And if you've got feedback about this podcast, we would love to hear from you. Send us an email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news