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Georgia Today: 'No voter fraud' say officials; Dock collapse on Sapelo Island; BioLab protests
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LISTEN: On the Monday, Oct. 21 edition of Georgia Today: As Georgia breaks early voting records, officials say there is no voter fraud; protesters in Conyers call for the shutdown of a BioLab plant; and authorities have identified those killed by a dock collapse on Georgia's Sapelo Island.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Monday, Oct. 21. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, as Georgia breaks early voting records, officials say there is no voter fraud. Protesters in Conyers call for the shutdown of the BioLab plant, and authorities have identified those killed by a dock collapse on Georgia's Sapelo Island. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: Authorities have identified the seven people who died when part of a ferry dock collapsed Saturday on Coastal Georgia's Sapelo Island. Four of the seven were from Jacksonville. Two were from Atlanta. One was a minister. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Benjamin Payne: Officials say about 700 people were visiting the island on Saturday for an annual festival celebrating the culture of Gullah Geechee people, descendants of enslaved West Africans who worked island plantations in the Southeast. J.R. Grovner is a Sapelo Island descendant. He says this past summer, he alerted a captain from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which maintains the dock, that its walkway, installed in 2021, was in poor condition.
J.R. Grovner: I was walking on it and was bouncing, so I stood in the middle of it and bounced up and down for the captain and he said, "Ah, it ain't going nowhere." Look what happened.
Benjamin Payne: Georgia DNR officials declined to comment on Grovner's allegation, but called the dock collapse a, quote, "structural failure" during a Sunday press conference. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: Vice President Kamala Harris visited two Atlanta area churches on Sunday, summoning the faithful to turn out at the polls. Music legend Stevie Wonder joined her at the congregation in Jonesboro. The night before, Usher spoke before Harris at a rally in Atlanta. GPB's Sarah Kallis has more.
Sarah Kallis: Thousands of supporters filled Lakewood Amphitheater on Saturday in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. Atlanta resident and musician Usher warmed up the crowd.
Usher: We can make a difference in this election, Georgia.
Sarah Kallis: Harris then spoke for about half an hour focusing on the cost of living, abortion access and the importance of voting.
Kamala Harris: And we are the underdog and we are running as the underdog. But make no mistake: We will win.
Sarah Kallis: Former President Donald Trump will hold an event in Duluth on Wednesday set to include musician Jason Aldean. Harris returns Thursday for an appearance with former President Barack Obama. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.
Story 3:
Peter Biello: A record 1.4 million ballots have been cast in Georgia since early voting began last Tuesday. That exceeds the early vote totals in the last presidential election. What that means for which candidates will prevail in November is still an open question, but those numbers do tell us something about the nature of this race and the strategies the presidential campaigns might take to pull off a win. With me now is Zachary Pescowicz, an associate professor of political science at Emory University. Welcome to the program.
Zachary Pescowicz: Thank you for having me.
Peter Biello: So the presidential election is going to be close, so it's not going to be possible to make an accurate prediction based on one data point, voter turnout. But what do you think is possible to glean from this record-breaking early turnout in Georgia?
Zachary Peskowitz: Yeah. So we've seen over 1.4 million votes cast as of yesterday, which is quite a bit. So, you know, there's some evidence of enthusiasm and excitement. People want to get their votes recorded as quickly as possible. I think one of the particularly important trends is we're seeing Republicans accept and embrace, to some extent, early voting more so than in past cycles. If you look at the data, a lot of the Republican counties and congressional districts in the state have had quite a bit of early voting in the first week that the polls have been open.
Peter Biello: Women have cast 55% of ballots so far. What can you make of that?
Zachary Peskowitz: Yes, I think there are some demographic trends that are positive for the Harris campaign and others that are more positive for the Trump campaign. So in particular, females are casting a lot of their early votes. That's a positive for the Harris campaign. But we're also seeing Georgians over the age of 65 casting a lot of early votes, which is more of a positive for the Trump campaign.
Peter Biello: Former President Trump has suggested that mail-in voting is susceptible to fraud and early voting is also susceptible to fraud. To what extent do you think that messaging is pushing some of his supporters to wait for Election Day to cast their ballots?
Zachary Peskowitz: Yeah. So in the 2020 cycle in particular, there was a lot of messaging from the Republican side about voting by mail in particular. That messaging has really changed this cycle. I think that Republicans have said "Just get out and vote as quickly as possible." That's happening in Georgia. That's happening in other prominent races across the country, like Kari Lake in Arizona, the Republican, for example. And there's much more of a concerted effort for Republican elites to message to their supporters: it's okay how you vote. Just do it as quickly as possible.
Peter Biello: What might such high turnout do to the get-out-the-vote strategies? In other words, have both camps kind of know that more people are already locked in earlier? What does that do to their approach going forward?
Zachary Peskowitz: Yeah. So both campaigns are modern and very sophisticated. They have individual-level voter lists. They have phone numbers and can send out text messages and have, you know, a variety of means to contact individual voters. So if you know exactly who has turned out to vote, you can allocate your resources towards those people who haven't. And that can be very powerful in the last few days before the election.
Peter Biello: What can we glean from numbers coming out in different parts of the state? Obviously, the larger the population in a given place, the more ballots that are cast. But in rural areas where there aren't as many voters, they, in some cases, are seeing a higher turnout percentage.
Zachary Peskowitz: Yes. So I think it's interesting to look at the share of votes cast as a percentage of registered voters so far. And we've seen in many of the rural, more Republican parts of the states that those numbers been pretty high so far. In 2020, Biden got about 85% of his vote from early voters, both mail and in-person, whereas Trump got about 75%. It'll be very interesting to see if those numbers equalize or if Trump is even able to surpass the Democrats in this cycle.
Peter Biello: What do we know about who tends to vote on weekends?
Zachary Peskowitz: Yeah, we have another weekend ahead. And so it'll be very interesting to see whether more younger people take advantage of that [during] that weekend coming up. There's, you know, a long tradition of Black Americans in particular, you know, often in combination with "Souls to the Polls” as we saw over the weekend.
Peter Biello: Church-led efforts to get people to the polls.
Zachary Peskowitz: Exactly. Church-led efforts to go to the polls. That can be very, very powerful. People who are working and may not have as much flexibility during the work week tend to vote on the weekends.
Peter Biello: So what data points will you be watching in the next two weeks?
Zachary Peskowitz: I think it'll be interesting to see how the demographics change. So early on, we've seen a very high share of the early voters are over the age of 65. So is that going to persist? How does the data change once we've had a second weekend? And I think that will be very important to look at to get — to get a sense of where we're going to be on Election Day.
Peter Biello: Zachary Pescowitz is associate professor of political science at Emory University. Thank you so much for speaking with me.
Zachary Pescowicz: Thank you.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says there is no voter fraud happening in Georgia. Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation, Raffensperger responded to false claims made by Northwest Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that Dominion voting machines in Whitfield County were changing votes.
Brad Raffensperger: That got blown out of proportion by people that like to use Twitter and other forms of social media. But we're going to respond quickly to these sorts of things in 2024 because it's not supported by the facts. The equipment's working. We've done all sorts of audits, you know, since the last election and coming up to this election.
Peter Biello: Whitfield County Board of Elections issued a statement saying, quote, "The issue was quickly resolved while the voter was still on site."
Story 5:
Peter Biello: Authorities in Albany have identified the person who died in a homecoming weekend shooting at Albany State University. 19-year-old D'Morian Daniels of Atlanta was killed and four others were injured by gunfire at Albany State's east campus on Saturday night. No suspect or motive have been announced and Albany's police chief is asking for the public's help in the investigation.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: Metro Atlanta's Rockdale County plans to file a federal lawsuit against BioLab. The litigation comes three weeks after a chemical fire at the company's plant in Conyers sent a toxic plume over the area last month. County commissioners said today they want the plant shut down. Yesterday, protesters gathered to demand the same thing. Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs asked Gov. Brian Kemp to intervene.
Gerald Griggs: We need that state of emergency so federal dollars can flow into this community so we can take care of those who have been displaced, those who are out of work, those whose businesses have been shuttered because of this disaster.
Peter Biello: BioLab says it's working to compensate affected residents.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: The top official at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development visited Norcross, north of Atlanta, last week, for a conversation with the Caribbean-American community about housing. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports.
Amanda Andrews: HUD Acting Secretary Adrian Todman met with residents and business leaders from across Gwinnett County to discuss federal housing efforts since 2021. Leaders were able to ask questions and share their own concerns about the rising costs of housing. Todman said she's aware many people haven't recovered financially since the pandemic for several reasons.
Adrian Todman: A lot of people perhaps lost a loved one who was part of their household — part of their economic engine and they had difficulties. And with the relaxing of the eviction moratoria.
Amanda Andrews: HUD priorities include partnering with other federal agencies to invest in building more rental housing and housing that's accessible to first-time homebuyers. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.
Story 8:
Peter Biello: In sports, Texas and everyone else are finding that Georgia is still the top dog in the Southeastern Conference. Coach Kirby Smart racked up his 100th victory in nine seasons with the Bulldogs as Georgia beat No. 1 Texas Saturday 30-15. The Bulldogs are going into an open date with a three-game winning streak. Also, the SEC has fined the Texas Longhorns a quarter million dollars after fans threw water bottles and trash onto the field during the game. The team must pay the fine, use available resources to find and suspend the fans who were responsible, review the alcohol policy and provide a report to the SEC. Texas issued a statement condemning the bottle throwing and apologized to Georgia players and staff, the SEC and game officials.
Story 9:
Peter Biello: And in soccer, Brad Guzan had nine saves as Atlanta United beat Orlando City 2 to 1 Saturday to clinch a berth in the MLS Cup playoffs. Now, No.9 seed Atlanta will face number eight seed CF Montreal in a single elimination game tomorrow in Montreal. And if they win, they'll take on Inter Miami in a best-of-three series beginning Friday.
Story 10:
Peter Biello: And finally, a Middle Georgia sheriff who had been in office for more than 50 years has died. Cullen Talton was first elected as House and county sheriff in 1972. Gov. Brian Kemp said Talton was America's longest serving sheriff and had become a, quote, "beloved fixture of Georgia law enforcement." Houston County Capt. Matt Moulton said Talton died at his home on Saturday. He was 92 years old.
Story 11:
Peter Biello: And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. We do appreciate you getting your news from Georgia Today, and we hope you'll come back tomorrow. The best way to do that is to subscribe to this podcast. When you do, the new episode will pop up automatically in your podcast feed. And as always, if you want to check out the latest headlines, visit GPB.org/news. Now, this is a two-way conversation with you, we hope, and we'd love to hear from you about your story, ideas, your feedback on the podcast. When you send us an email, it goes to the whole team. We all take a look at what you have to say, so email us. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. That's GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.
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