The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Subtle change may have undermined Georgia automatic voter registration

ATLANTA — A dramatic drop in automatic voter registrations in Georgia may be caused by a government website that required potential voters to click a button before they could sign up. That’s not how automatic voter registration is supposed to work. The intent of the program is to register voters at driver’s license offices by default, with an option not to register. The change to automatic registration could explain a sharp decline in the rate of Georgians who opted to register through the Department of Driver Services, from 79% in 2020 to 39% last year, according to government records obtaine...

Did Georgia weaken automatic voter registration?

ATLANTA — Until last year, the vast majority of people who visited Georgia driver's license offices automatically registered to vote at the same time. Not anymore. Voter registrations submitted through the Georgia Department of Driver Services have plummeted since January 2021, according to government records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The sharp decrease indicates that automatic voter registration is no longer working as it had in the past. Half as many drivers opted to register at driver's license offices last year compared with 2020, a drop from 79% to 39%. The decline coi...

Family thankful for ‘outpouring of love’ after arrest in Georgia triple homicide

ATLANTA — Family members of the three people shot and killed inside a Grantville shooting range and gun shop last weekend began to get answers Friday but questions persist in the horrific crime. On Saturday, a day after authorities made an arrest in the triple homicide, a spokesperson for the victims’ family released a statement expressing gratitude to the investigating agencies. “We understand from (Grantville Police) Chief Steve Whitlock that the current development with the murder suspect in custody, was certainly a team effort,” the statement read. “We are continuing to pray for their team...

Georgia candidates raise crush of cash for 2022. It's 'just the beginning'

ATLANTA — Georgia Democrats are building a formidable advantage in their battle to hold U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock's seat and flip other statewide races: a tidal wave of cash. Republicans, meanwhile, are slowly cobbling together their own mountain of moolah. Financial disclosures out this past week continued to cement Warnock as one of the nation's elite fundraisers. The first-term Democrat set another financial record by raising $13.6 million over the first three months of the year, ending the quarter with $25.6 million in the bank. His top Republican rival, former football star Herschel Walke...

Controversial rural jobs program generates hundreds of jobs: report

Venture capital funds participating in a Georgia rural jobs program say they have created or retained roughly 1,400 jobs, according to the state program's most recent annual report. The Georgia Agribusiness and Rural Jobs Act (GARJA), first passed in 2017, was created to help spur investment into Georgia's rural counties by leveraging state tax dollars. The state agreed to dole out $60 million in tax credits over several years to five venture capital firms who in turn match with $40 million of their own and invest in rural businesses throughout Georgia. The report completed this month by the G...

How Georgia Republicans passed a gun expansion after years of gridlock

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp's support for "permit-less carry" legislation helped him emerge from a crowded Republican primary in 2018. But it took more than three years for Kemp to devote the political capital — and corral the votes — to pass the legislation. Interviews with key legislators and GOP officials helped piece together how the legislation, which lets Georgians carry concealed handguns without a permit, crossed the finish line after years of gridlock that dates back decades. The timing comes at a vital moment for Kemp, who is locked in a brutal GOP primary. His rival, former U.S. Sen. ...

Federal judge rejects Abrams bid to use fundraising law that helps Kemp

ATLANTA — A federal judge ruled Thursday that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams can’t use a state law created to give Gov. Brian Kemp a major fundraising advantage in their possible rematch this year. Judge Mark Cohen telegraphed his written decision during a Monday hearing in the case when he said Abrams won’t be the Democratic nominee for governor until her uncontested May 24 primary. Being the party’s nominee is a requirement for using the leadership committee law approved last year by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. “Granting plaintiffs’ requested relief ... woul...

Does Trump's endorsement matter in Georgia? It depends, says UGA poll

One of the biggest mysteries of the May primary is how much sway Donald Trump still has among GOP voters. A University of Georgia poll offers an early glimpse at the power — and limits — of the former president's support. The poll involved a specially designed experiment that divided respondents into two groups. One group was informed which candidate the former president endorsed before being asked their vote choice in five separate statewide races. The other didn't receive that information. The results of the poll, conducted by UGA's School of Public and International Affairs, showed Trump's ...

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock sets another fundraising record, ends quarter with $25.6 million in the bank

ATLANTA — Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock broke another fundraising record by amassing $13.6 million over the first three months of the year, ending the quarter with $25.6 million in the bank for a campaign that could decide control of the Senate. His campaign said Thursday it was the most money ever raised by any U.S. Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year. The Democrat bested his own record-setting haul from the last fundraising quarter, when he collected $9.8 million in the last three months of 2021. In this first quarter of 2022, he collected contributions from 183,...

Ammo maker moves to Georgia

A European-owned ammunition maker has joined the growing list of gun and gun-equipment manufacturers calling Georgia home. Norma Precision Ammunition, a subsidiary of European ammunition manufacturer RUAG Ammotec, is relocating its U.S. headquarters, manufacturing, and warehousing and distribution operations to Chatham County, near Savannah. It did not say how many jobs the company was bringing. The company's U.S. subsidiary has been located in Tampa, Florida. Swiss-based RUAG Ammotec makes ammunition for sports shooters, special operations forces, and police forces worldwide. In 2021, Norma P...

Bitcoin miners descend on Georgia to mint new currency

Georgia was the site of America’s first gold rush in 1828 when miners flocked to the mountains near Dahlonega looking to strike it rich. Nearly 200 years later, a new wave of miners is descending on the state. Instead of gold, they’re mining a type of money that can’t be hidden under a mattress or folded into a wallet. They’re in the hunt for bitcoins, a cryptocurrency that has a global value of more than $1 trillion. Since 2020, bitcoin mining companies have opened or expanded eight facilities across the the state, lured by some of the same benefits that bring other industries to Georgia: ine...

Georgia Gov. Kemp to sign bill allowing concealed carry of handguns without a license

ATLANTA — As of Tuesday, most Georgians will be allowed to carry concealed handguns without first getting a license from the state. Making good on a 2018 campaign promise, Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign Senate Bill 319, sometimes referred to as "constitutional carry." SB 319 would allow a "lawful weapons carrier" to carry a concealed handgun everywhere license holders currently are allowed — meaning guns would still be prohibited in places such as the secured areas of airports or government buildings that have security at the entrance, including the state Capitol. A lawful weapons carrier...

Voting rights trial opens with disputes over Georgia election suppression efforts

ATLANTA — A major voting rights trial launched Monday with allegations that Georgia has erected “a series of roadblocks” to casting a ballot, and a response that the case attempts “a wholesale attack” on the state’s election system. Opening statements by each side marked a stark contrast in the federal trial, where a judge will hear testimony over the next month to determine if Georgia’s elections procedures illegally burden eligible voters. It’s the first voting rights case to make it to trial in Atlanta’s federal courts in at least a decade, the culmination of a lawsuit filed by allies of De...

Georgia voting rights trial to begin after years of heated elections

ATLANTA — One of the most prominent voting rights cases in years is going to trial Monday, testing allegations that Georgia's election policies illegally obstructed voters from casting their ballots. The long-awaited trial will highlight complaints about voting problems in the 2018 and 2020 elections, bringing a parade of voters and election officials to federal court to testify under oath about their experiences. The case has been building for three-and-a-half years since it was filed by Fair Fight Action, a group Democrat Stacey Abrams founded following her loss to Republican Brian Kemp in t...

Republican Herschel Walker was a no-show in his first GOP debate

ATLANTA — Former football great Herschel Walker skipped the first major Republican U.S. Senate debate, but his absence at the event in Gainesville on Saturday helped shape the back-and-forth among the five candidates who showed up. Each of Walker's top rivals criticized the GOP front-runner for skipping the event and predicted that his strategy, which involves a regimen of mostly tightly scripted events and private gatherings, would leave him vulnerable against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. And several at the 9th District GOP debate compared Walker's approach to President Joe Biden's "...