On Wednesday at the Capitol, lawmakers gave their ideas for next steps after new details came to light about an FBI raid at a Fulton County elections warehouse.
Two House Democrats held a press conference in the morning to dispute claims made by the federal government in their subpoena of Fulton County voting documents. Reps. Saira Draper and Tanya Miller, both of Atlanta, say that claims made in the affidavit had already been booked.
"These are issues that have been openly reported by journalists," Draper said. "These are issue that have investigated both by Democratically controlled Fulton County and Republican-controlled state agencies in Georgia. These are the issues that has been litigated to death in court and have never passed muster. Honestly, the most telling thing about this affidavit is that after more than five years to find evidence of fraud, a rehash of baseless election denier talking points was all the federal government could come up with. Why? Because there is no fraud."
Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming says the raid confirmed what many feared about Fulton County's voter rolls and wants the state to take over Fulton County's election operations this fall.
"What has us concerned moving forward is the voter rolls in Fulton County continue to be a mess," he said. "And it's my personal opinion it's past time for the state to take over Fulton County elections until they prove that they're capable of adjudicating our elections in Georgia."
Fulton County Commission Chairman Rob Pitts traveled to the Capitol to respond to Dolezal's comments.
"Well, after I stopped laughing, remember, this is election season," Pitits said. "Every elected official — well, many, many would-be elected officials gonna seize upon this moment to have their 10 to 15 seconds in the spotlight by picking on Fulton County. But let me be crystal clear. We at Fulton County, we will fight with every resource available to us to defend our elections and the rights of the people who reside in Fulton County, who live in Fulton County, who vote in Fulton County."
It was a busy day in the House as members debated and passed several bills.
House Bill 383 dealt with name, image and likeness rights for high school athletes. NIL laws for teenagers already exist in the state under child actor laws, but the bill would provide guardrails for contracts.
"What this does is it protects these student athletes from having these unended contracts at the collegiate and the NFL level," Rep. Brent Cox (R-Dawsonville) said. "I had the privilege of working on both sides of the aisle with this and we wanted to ensure that we were protecting these young athletes to be able to maximize their potential and also so that you know if there's questions when a student athlete has that money. The parents are the ones who go in contract with this under child acting laws, and they're also the ones that will be responsible to understand these contracts."
It passed unanimously.
Another bill increases the speed at which food delivery robots can travel.
"We also look to other states that follow the state of Georgia," Rep. Todd Jones (R-South Forsyth) said. "We took leadership. They went ahead and followed us. Many of them went to 10 to 12 miles an hour. So in a sense, laboratories of democracy, federalism at its finest, we looked at other states and said we weren't going to go 10 to 12. We were just going to trim it up to 7 [mph]. More importantly, or equally important to the safety, is our ability to keep efficiency. By increasing it on the crosswalks, we're able to move them across the crosswalks faster and move traffic, especially here in downtown and midtown Atlanta, at a more efficient pace."
Some lawmakers had concerns about pedestrian safety if the robots are allowed to move faster, but in the end, the bill passed 164 to 3.
Members also passed a resolution that would allow voters to decide if all judges can run as nonpartisan candidates in elections. Under current law, probate judges have to pick a party when they run for election.
"Judges should be running nonpartisan because we need to maintain the public's confidence in an independent judiciary," Rep. Kimberly New (R-Villa Rica) said. "Requiring some judges to run in partisan elections make it difficult for them to comply with the Code of Judicial Conduct and maintain impartiality and the appearance of impartiality. They are the only judges now that have to run partisan. And out of 1,600 judges in Georgia, 53 run partisan."
The measure received bipartisan support, but sparked a conversation about the politicization of the judicial system.
"Will we remain a rule of law country? Will we remain a democracy?" Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah) said. "Or will we accelerate the process many scholars, many legal scholars believe has already begun and tip further into something more like a competitive autocracy? An autocracy, sure, they have elections, and they have courts, and they have journalists, and the external hallmarks of a democracy. But none of it's really trusted. And therefore, none of that really matters."
House Resolution 251 passed 147 to 20.
Meanwhile, two bills were easily passed in the Senate.
Senate Bill 400 strengthens the role of the Georgia Non-Public Post-Secondary Education Committee.
"It allows the commission to have oversight and control of bad actors," Sen. Max Burns (R-Sylvania) said. "Occasionally an independent school will come in, they'll set up shop in the storefront, they'll recruit students, they will accept tuition, and then they fail to deliver services. And one of the things that the commission does is protect those students from bad actors."
SB 444 would prohibit medical insurance companies from using AI programs without human approval.
"This bill recognizes the important role played by artificial intelligence in this process now and in the future," Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (R-Marietta) said. "However, the bill specifies that there must be a human clinical peer in the process before an adverse determination is made."
Wednesday was also Kia Day and State Trooper Day at the Capitol. Legislators will be back Thursday for Day 18.
GPB's Lawmakers returns for Day 18 on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. on GPB TV.
