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Gay marriage ban bill stays in committee
Posted at: Tuesday, March 2, 2004, 11:01 AM
As expected, the House Rules Committee passed on re-introducing Senate Resolution 595 to the full house this morning.
The controversial bill, which would only recognize the union of a man and a women, was thrown back to the Rules Committee Monday after the House voted 127-48 to reconsider.
Last week, the Republican-sponsored bill missed passage by only three votes. Rules Chair Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) did not give a timetable of when the bill would be discussed.
Smyre said that other pressing issues, including budget cuts, need to be dealt with first.
— Ernie Suggs, Staff writer, Atlanta-Journal Constitution
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Capitol rally winds down
Posted at: Monday, March 1, 2004, 02:27 PM
As the Georgia General Assembly reconvened Monday afternoon to reconsider a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, more than a thousand Georgians vigorously exercised their right to free speech.
Though the invective was heated at times, police reported no major incidents or injuries.
Police officers used Washington Street, and about 10 police cars, to divide the protesters and supporters of the proposed amendment that gathered. Reporters at the scene estimated estimated the gay rights crowd as numbering about 700 people and the pro-amendment gathering at 1,500 to 2,000.
The crowd was not shy.
“This is not just a gay issue. It’s about amending a constitution. That is a drastic action and shouldn’t be taken lightly,” said Beth Kirch, a placement director at the University of Georgia Law School. “It shouldn’t be taken lightly. It shouldn’t be a symbolic act. It shouldn’t be a political strategy to bring out a certain group of people to vote.”
“There are a lot of Christians here today who say no to this amendment … real Christians,” added Kirch, who said she was heterosexual.
Zack Baxter, of Marietta, had a different opinion.
“I am here to support God,” Baxter said. “I want to make sure the sewers of sodomy don’t get in my yard.”
Baxter, on the Capitol side of the street with other supporters of the amendment, yelled, “You hate God!” at his opponents. A nearby sign said “Homo Sex is a Sin.”
A 13-year-old girl told gays they were going to hell. Two Boy Scouts held signs railing against gay marriage.
“Look at them,” said Robert Janssen, of Atlanta. “They look like Hitler Youth.”
Marianne Seggerman said she was disturbed by all of the religious vitriol.
“I came into the gay rights movement as a result of my faith,” said the Roman Catholic. “I’m sadden by the young people that they are bringing down here.
Across the street from the Capitol at Talmadge Square, Katheryn Preston and Freda Bonaparte snacked on fast food while watching the demonstrations. The two women work for the Georgia Coalition to End Homelessness and were at the Capitol to meet with the Cobb County delegation to discuss funding issues.
“We’re sitting here taking notes,” said Preston, 52, of Marietta. “It’s an incredible movement. We wish we could get our folks so organized around homeless issues and concerns.”
Shortly before noon, several busloads of church groups from across the state arrived at the Capitol, unloading conservatively-dressed Christians who immediately encountered gay-rights activists as they approached the Capitol steps.
Ann Goff and several of her neighbors from Waycross traveled 240 miles to attend the rally in support of traditional marriage.
“I believe God instituted marriage between a man and a woman,” Goff said. “Those are His laws. I don’t think it’s in man’s place to change those laws. We’re making a choice here to either follow God’s way or man’s way. God can not bless a nation that is not obedient to Him.”
Goff, who attends Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, said her view is not intended to be hateful or discriminatory toward gays and lesbians. Goff said she believes that “recognizing homosexuality as a sin is not equivalent to discounting the person’s worth.”
At other times, however, the showdown between gay rights activists and supporters of the constitutional ban became much more testy.
As opponents of the proposed amendment sang “America the Beautiful,” a supporter of the gay marriage ban waved a sign that said, “Three Gay rights: AIDS, Hell, Salvation.”
Another sign said, “All queers will burn in hell unless they repent.”
A man speaking with a microphone and loudspeaker ended the pro-amendment portion of the rally.
“If God is going to let you into heaven, he is going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for burning those cities to the ground. Do you think God is going to apologize? … It makes him want to vomit when he looks down here and sees that,” he said as he pointed across the street at the anti-amendment contingent.
Chris Graham, pastor of Church of the Savior in Roswell, while listening to the closing remarks, said the issue was not a religious matter, but one of civil liberties. “The constitution should not be used to enshrine or codify discrimination,” he said. “This issue has already been decided in Fortune 500 boardrooms.”
— Cameron McWhirter, Milo Ippolito, Ernie Suggs, Etan Horowitz, Mae Gentry, Steve Visser, ajc.com
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House votes to reconsider gay marriage ban amendment
Posted at: Monday, March 1, 2004, 02:22 PM
The House voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to reconsider Senate Resolution 595, which would amend the Georgia Constitution to add a prohibition of gay marriage.
The vote was 127-48. SR 595 has now been placed on the House general calendar.
The House Rules Committee must now place the resolution on its calendar in order for it to come up for a vote before the full House again. The Rules Committee meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The resolution failed by three votes Thursday to get the required 120 of 180 votes in the House. Rep. Bill Hembree (R-Douglasville) gave notice Thursday immediately after the vote to have the measure reconsidered, a fairly common procedural move.
Shortly before 2 p.m. today, Hembree rose and asked that SR 595 be reconsidered.
Rep. Nan Orrock, the House Majority Whip, objected to the reconsideration. Her objection required a vote to be taken on the reconsideration. The vote was immediately taken with no debate.
— Carlos Campos, ajc.com
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Democrat blasts ‘gun barrel’ politics on gay issue
Posted at: Monday, March 1, 2004, 01:16 PM
State Rep. John Noel (D-Atlanta) has announced that, even though he opposes gay marriage, he will not vote on the proposed constitutional amendment to ban it, in large part because of the pressure to take a stand on the issue.
“I am opposed to gay marriage,” the District 44 lawmaker wrote in a statement faxed on his House of Representatives letterhead. “I also oppose the partisan, at the barrel of a gun, attempt to embarrass Democrats nationally with this issue.”
On Senate Resolution 595, which is scheduled to come back before the state House today on a motion for reconsideration, Noel wrote: “I have decided to abstain from the vote in protest of gun barrel partisan politics. We don’t need to be forced to spend precious time on this explosive but unimportant issue that is already law in Georgia.”
On Thursday, Noel had an excused absence and did not vote when the resolution calling for an amendment failed by three votes to pass the House. The measure already has passed the Senate.
Noel was one of 12 representatives not to record a vote on the issue, although the lone Republican in the group said his machine malfunctioned and asked the House clerk to record him as a “yes” vote.
The reconsideration motion, which needs a simple majority, or 91 of the 180 House members, is expected to pass this afternoon.
If so, the anti-gay-marriage proposal would be eligible to come back before the House, possibly Tuesday. Proposed constitutional amendments require two-thirds approval in both chambers of the Legislature, or 120 House votes.
Noel, who is a white man, represents a majority-black district in northwest Atlanta and southeast Cobb County, after defeating 30-year African-American incumbent Billy McKinney in the 2002 Democratic primary.
— James Salzer, ajc.com
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Crowd moved out of Capitol
Posted at: Monday, March 1, 2004, 12:36 PM
Hundreds of protesters both against and for gay marriage crammed into the Capitol Monday were ordered out into the street at noon, because police said the crowds violated fire safety standards.
Proponents and opponents of a proposed amendment to the Georgia constitution banning gay marriage gathered on each side of Washington Street carrying signs and chanting.
Estimates are that there are 500 supporters of the Christian Coalition on hand and about 150 Georgia Equality activists. The two groups are being kept apart by police. There have been no major incidents or arrests, police said. Two gay rights protesters briefly sat down in the street to stop traffic, but they went back to the sidewalk and they were not arrested.
Senate Resolution 595, which narrowly failed last week in the state House of Representatives, is expected to be debated and voted on again this week, possibly Tuesday.
A House vote last week on the proposed amendment fell three votes short of passage. State law requires a constitutional amendment pass the House with a two-thirds majority or 120 votes. Gay marriage already is illegal under state law, but the ban is not codified in the constitution.
— Cameron McWhirter, ajc.com
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Protesters rally at Capitol
Posted at: Monday, March 1, 2004, 10:15 AM
Political foes gathered Monday morning for a show of force at the state Capitol, where legislators will vote on whether to reconsider a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
Senate Resolution 595, which narrowly failed last week in the state House of Representatives, is expected to be debated and voted on again this week, possibly Tuesday.
A House vote last week on the proposed amendment fell three votes short of passage. State law requires a constitutional amendment pass the House with a two-thirds majority or 120 votes. Gay marriage already is illegal under state law, but the ban is not codified in the constitution.
As noon approached and the sun came out after a morning of cold, gray skies, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Capitol. Supporters of the amendment were placed by police on the sidewalk along Washington Street north of the capitol steps. Several gave speeches about the Bible and homosexuality using megaphones. Amendment opponents were gathered south of the steps with signs.
Bill Adams, a street preacher in a navy suit, gripped his Bible and prayed for the amendment to pass.
Adams said that he “did not come down here to preach at people,” but homosexuality “is a destructive lifestyle in addition to being prohibited by the Bible.”
Bill Ball, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in the west Georgia town of Primrose, stood on capitol steps with two other men carrying a sign declaring, “I now pronounce you pervert and pervert.”
“I guess it’s shock therapy because you’ve got three or four seconds for people to go by, and you want to make them think,” he said.
Down the street, gay rights activist Michael Knight, 41, of east Atlanta carried a sign declaring “You call that Christian?”
Some two dozen children from East Side Christian School in Marietta made their way across Washington Street. Cathy Wells, a mother who was among the group’s chaperons, said the children had visited the office of state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), who supports the gay marriage ban amendment and talked with the students about government and the sanctity of marriage.
“So they are aware of the issue,” Wells said, referring to the battle over the proposed amendment. “They can hardly avoid it,” she said as the crowd grew outside the capital.
Wells said she, too, has talked with her 10-year-old son about the controversy. “I tell him that marriage was ordained by God as between a man and a woman.”
“We [Christians] don’t hate anybody,” Wells said. “We pray for them.”
Inside, About 300 opponents of the proposed amendment, including 20 members of the clergy, packed into room 506.
Margaret Aymer, a professor on leave from Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, told the crowd she “heard the dangerous sound of history repeating itself.”
“I stand before you a female, Christian, Presbyterian minister [and] … I come from a people who have had their subhuman status inscribed into the text of the Constitution of the United States of America,” she said. ” … I stand with the [Presbyterian] general assemblies of 1978 and 1987 that ruled ‘there is no legal social or moral justification for denying homosexual person access to the basic requirements of human social existence.’”
Jill Chambers, the only House Republican to vote against the proposed amendment, spoke briefly to opponents of the amendment while sharing a Capitol elevator.
“We will vote for liberty,” said Chambers as she headed to work.
The Central Presbyterian Church, across the street from the Capitol, opened its doors to those opposed to the amendment.
John Huss, a church elder, said his church leadership sent a unanimous resolution to the Legislature last month against the amendment. The amendment would serve “not to protect marriage but to institutionalize discrimination,” he said.
“Not all Christians are on the same side of this issue,” Huss said.
Earlier this morning, at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse on the east side of Atlanta, a small group of about 12 gay men and women gathered before heading to the Capitol on MARTA.
“It’s tough having a rally the morning after the Oscars,” quipped Philip Rafshoon, owner of the gay and lesbian bookstore in Midtown.
Rafshoon, wearing a gold band, said he has had a partner for eight years but never had a commitment ceremony. “We’re going to wait until we have the right,” said Rafshoon.
Stoney Stone, 18, from Chamblee, was in agreement. “I think we deserve just as much right to marriage as the heterosexuals. Love is love,” he said.
The Christian Coalition of Georgia placed notices in hundreds of church bulletins encouraging supporters to attend a noon rally today in the Capitol rotunda in favor of the ban.
“We’re still calling lawmakers,” Sadie Fields, the coalition’s Georgia director, said Sunday afternoon. “We believe the legislators will do the right thing and give the people of Georgia a vote on this incredibly critical issue.”
Dozens of Atlanta Police Department personnel will assist Capitol police with crowd control and traffic, said Atlanta Sgt. John Quigley.
“We’re working with the people there to allow them to express their First Amendment rights,” Quigley said. “We only hope that everybody participates in a lawful manner.”
While one drama brews outside the legislative chambers, another continues today inside the House. Republicans will move today for a reconsideration of the failed vote, a common procedural tactic with high-profile issues. That vote is likely to pass because it requires only a majority, or 91 votes. But because of House rules, another vote on SR 595 is not expected to come until Tuesday at the earliest.
It was unclear late Sunday how many people would show up for today’s rallies — estimates ranged from the low hundreds to several thousand. Thornell said he expects “several hundred” gay rights supporters to attend Georgia Equality’s 10 a.m. rally and stay to lobby House members, who return to the Capitol at 1 p.m.
Today’s Capitol rallies were planned before last Thursday’s House vote, but have taken on vastly more significance in its aftermath.
There was some speculation that House leaders fast-tracked last week’s vote to try to get it out of the way before today’s rallies and ease pressure on lawmakers. Many legislators say their e-mail in-boxes and fax machines have been jammed by messages from supporters and opponents of SR 595.
But the heat on lawmakers, especially Democrats who control the House, has not let up. Twelve House members did not vote and have been the focus of massive lobbying over the weekend as both sides try to win their favor. Eleven of them are Democrats.
The proposed ban passed in the Republican Senate three weeks ago, but was stymied in the House by a fragile coalition of African-American and urban, white Democrats. Conservative House Democrats — many from rural areas — sided with House Republicans and voted for the constitutional ban.
— Staff writers Cameron McWhirter, Milo Ippolito and Mae Gentry contributed to this article.
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Showdown on gay marriage ban expected Tuesday
Posted at: Friday, February 27, 2004, 05:01 PM
The next big showdown over gay marriage at the Capitol is likely to take place Tuesday.
House Rules Chairman Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) said he expects the House Monday to decide whether to reconsider its vote Thursday defeating the proposed gay marriage amendment. The House voted 117-50 in support of the proposed amendment. However, the measure failed by three votes to get the required 120 votes needed to put it on the ballot. Twelve legislators had excused absences or did not vote.
The motion to reconsider the measure needs only a majority in the 180-member House — 91 votes — to pass. If it does, Smyre said the amendment will probably be taken up by his committee Tuesday, and added to the House schedule to be debated Tuesday afternoon.
The amendment to ban same-sex marriages has already passed the Senate, so if it is approved by the House it will go on the November ballot for voters to consider. It does not require the governor’s signature.
Both sides in the debate are expected to crowd the halls of the statehouse Monday to lobby lawmakers on the issue.
— James Salzer, ajc.com
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House rejects gay marriage ban
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:28 PM
The Georgia House of Representatives rejected by three votes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Thursday evening. The measure failed by a 117-50 vote.
A two-thirds majority, or 120 votes, was required for passage of Senate Resolution 595.
A second vote is likely on the issue. Rep. Bill Hembree (R-Douglasville) asked that the resolution be reconsidered on Monday. House members must vote by a simple majority, or 91 votes, to reconsider the resolution.
Twelve members of the House were not present for the vote. The House speaker only votes to break a tie. A loud cheer came from the House gallery, where onlookers gathered to see the debate, immediately after the votes were tallied. House Speaker Terry Coleman (D-Eastman) immediately threatened to remove visitors if they weren’t quiet.
After the vote, Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) hugged Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates), the General Assembly’s only openly gay member. Both Benfield and Stuckey gave passionate speeches against the bill prior to the vote.
Two amendments that would have removed language in the resolution that some contend takes away domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples failed to get approval as well.
Legislators debated the bill for 3-and-a-half hours, invoking quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin E. Mays and other leaders.
Earlier, the first speaker of the GOP-sponsored measure was a Democrat who urged its passage.
Mike Boggs (D-Waycross) said lawmakers had an opportunity to protect the state against “activist judges” who might try to overturn the state law that bars same-sex marriage.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, we have seldom had an opportunity to stand up for things that are common-sensical, things that stand up for Christian values,” Boggs said.
He was followed by Republican Bill Hembree, of Douglasville, who concurred with Boggs.
“Stand up in the defense of marriage,” said Hembree, after reading the definition of marriage from a dictionary as between “husband and wife.”
Hembree and other supporters repeatedly urged the chamber not to change the bill, and to vote for the bill so “the people can decide.”
Rep. Bob Holmes argued against the bill, saying “activist judges” often issue rulings that are in the public’s best interest. He cited rulings pertaining to the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing voting rights for African-Americans.
“This goes beyond the notion of preventing same-sex marriage,” Holmes said. “We’re not talking about special privileges … we’re going to constitutionally discriminate against this segment of the population.”
Holmes disputed Republican assertions that a constitutional amendment would provide more protection than the current state law against a ban being overturned by the courts.
Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) said the amendment would threaten domestic partner benefits many large Georgia companies, such as Coca-Cola and BellSouth, offer members of gay couples.
She also asked if legislators thought the amendment would make gay couples go away.
“If anything, it will make them stronger,” Benfield said.
Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta), the 10th speaker on the resolution, said she hoped one day politicians would move past “attacking gay folks for political advantage.”
“Tonight, if we move this resolution forward I will go home and cry. I will cry for the lost hopes and dreams of thousands of my constituents who simply want to live their lives the way so many of us do every day.”
“Nobody can stand here and say that anyone is harmed by two loving individuals pledging their love for one another. … People who are not harming anyone deserve to be left alone. I thought both political parties believed that. Today, that lie is being exposed.”
Rep. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) said members would live to regret a vote in favor of the ban. Like previous speakers, she invoked the legacy of civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr.
“Folks, this is the same thing as when legislatures put Jim Crow laws and codified them in their law books. You’re saying that people because of their status are not allowed to have the same rights as us.”
In a passionate speech, Rep. Alisha Thomas-Morgan (D-Austell) chastised Republicans for seeking to interfere with Georgians’ lives and in their bedrooms.
“How is it when you talk about less government, you want to talk about what people can do?” she said.
Thomas-Morgan said she is a Christian and opposes “this hateful bill.” She said she consulted her pastor and he told her to vote her conscience and he would support her.
“I urge you to have some guts,” she told her colleagues. “Have some courage.”
By about 5 p.m., 17 House members had spoken on the resolution in more than two hours of debate. Six had spoken in favor of it, 11 against.
Rep. Larry Walker (D-Perry), who is not running for re-election after 31 years in the legislature, said he supports the resolution but announced he would offer an amendment that he said would strengthen it. The change would drop language saying “no union between persons of the same sex shall be recognized by this state as entitled to the benefits of marriage.” The language has raised questions about whether companies and local governments would be able to offer health benefits to domestic partners.
Under Walker’s change, the resolution would say only, “the state shall recognize as marriage only the union of man and woman. Marriages between persons of the same sex are prohibited in this state.”
A hush fell over the chamber as Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) took the podium to speak. Drenner is the only openly gay legislator in the General Assembly. She spoke in largely personal terms, telling colleagues she didn’t expect to change minds but wanted them to know more about her.
Drenner noted that she was raised Southern Baptist and is a mother. She wasn’t raised to be gay, and isn’t raising her children to be gay. She said she’s more than just a gay legislator.
“I have a tag line: the only openly lesbian legislator. That’s what I have become as a result of this. I wear that label, but I am more than that label. I represent 45,000 people just like you do,” she said.
Drenner went on to condemn Senate Resolution 595, saying President Bush declared war on gay people when he announced this week that he would support a ban in the U.S. Constitution.
“This amendment does not create more jobs, it does not improve education, nor does it provide access to affordable housing and healthcare,” she said. “It seeks to vilify and persecute an already oppressed minority.”
The bill passed a crucial committee vote this afternoon.
By a 23-6 vote, the House Rules Committee passed Senate Resolution 595 to the House floor for debate. If it passes without change in the full House, where it needs the vote of 120 of 180 members, it would be placed on the November ballot for a vote.
Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), chairman of the House Rules Committee, asked for a roll-call vote on the resolution.
The committee’s secretary then read each member’s name. Twenty-three members said “yes” while only six said “no” to the amendment; one member was absent.
“S.R. 595 is voted out of committee and onto the general calendar,” Smyre said after that vote. “Now, for the bill to go on the floor for debate.”
By a voice vote, House Rules members then immediately voted to discuss the bill before the full House, which was to convene at 2 p.m.
The Rules Committee, which had quizzed the Senate sponsor during an early-morning meeting, took only a few minutes to pass the resolution. Rep. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) attempted to add an amendment that would strike out part of SR 595, but it failed.
Some people opposed to the resolution contend that it would deny domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples. Republicans have said the resolution would have no effect on such benefits given by private businesses.
Earlier, Smyre also promised changes to the resolution. That would necessitate its reconsideration by the state Senate, which has already passed the ban.
“We will come back and perfect the legislation,” Smyre said.
At this morning’s session of Rules, Democratic House members blasted the proposed constitutional ban as flawed and questioned the sponsor’s motives.
Sen. Mike Crotts (R-Conyers), the resolution’s sponsor, said he was not surprised by the meeting’s tone.
“It went pretty much like I expected it,” Crotts said. “They are under fire on this issue, and the people in the state want to vote on it.”
Committee members took the measure apart, almost line by line.
Rep. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), said Crotts’ contention that the bill protects the state from “activist judges” who would want to change the current law is weak and that the bill would put the state more at risk of legal action.
“While you claim that you are not prejudiced and you love black people and you go to church with black people, you want to pass a bill saying that some people should be excluded from the Constitution,” Orrock said. “That is not equal protection.”
“Equal protection is what we have,” Crotts shot back. “They want special rights.”
Smyre adjourned the meeting after 50 minutes to allow members of the committee to convene with the full House, which started at 10 a.m. Smyre said the committee meeting will resume later in the day but he was unsure about a vote.
House Majority Leader Jimmy Skipper (D-Americus) said several legislators had called in and were having trouble making it to the Capitol because of the weather. Only three of the 30 members of the Rules Committee were absent, however.
The proposed amendment, which if it passed the Legislature would have to be voted on by the public in November, would define marriage in Georgia as a union strictly between a man and a woman.
Democrats make up 23 of the 30 committee members, but they said they had no unified position on the resolution.
Smyre is chairman of the Rules Committee, which decides which bills make it to the House floor for debate. He did not allow public comment during the committee meeting.
He said his office has received a total of more than 2,000 calls on the issue.
The Rules Committee must take two votes to consider whether SR 595 will make it to the full House for debate. The first positive vote would put it on the general calendar. The second, which leaders said would not come before next week, would put the measure on the Rules calendar, which is the agenda for the full House.
In committee, a simple majority is required for passage of the resolution, which already has passed the GOP-controlled Senate.
But on the House floor, a constitutional amendment requires approval by two-thirds of the 180 members, or 120 votes. Democrats control the House 108-71, with one independent.
Democrats might alter the legislation in the Rules Committee and place the legislation’s final fate — assuming it passed the full House — in the hands of a six-member conference committee that could further change or kill the measure.
The Republican resolution passed the GOP-held Senate, where 38 votes were required, 40-14. The party holds a 30-26 majority there.
— Ernie Suggs and Carlos Campos, ajc.com
Permalink | Categories: Gay Marriage Ban
House committee vote roll call
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:21 PM
The House Rules Committee voted Thursday 23-6 to send Senate Resolution 595, the proposed state constitutional ban on gay marriage, to the floor of the full House:
Terry Barnard (R-Glennville) YES
Ken Birdsong (D-Gordon) YES
Tom Bordeaux (D-Savannah) NO
Tom Buck (D-Columbus) YES
Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) YES
Tom Campbell (R-Roswell) YES
Buddy Childers (D-Rome) YES
Scott Dix (D-Lilburn) YES
Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) YES
Carl Von Epps (D-LaGrange) YES
Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) NO
Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) YES
Bob Lane (D-Statesboro) YES
Jimmy Lord (D-Sandersville) YES
Randall Mangham (D-Decatur) YES
Bobby Parham (D-Milledgeville) YES
Butch Parrish (D-Swainsboro) YES
DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) YES
Nikki Randall (D-Macon) NO
Robert Ray (D-Fort Valley) YES
Glenn Richardson (R-Dallas) YES
Jay Shaw (D-Lakeland) YES
Jimmy Skipper (D-Americus) YES
Jim Stokes (D-Covington) YES
Doug Teper (D-Atlanta) NO
Larry Walker (D-Perry) YES
Lynn Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg) YES
Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) NO
Cavlin Smyre (D-Columbus), chair, NO
Lanett Stanley-Turner (D-Atlanta) ABSENT
— Carlos Campos, ajc.com
Permalink | Categories: Gay Marriage Ban
How it went today...
Beth wrote:
Machines worked absolutely perfect, not one problem. Slightly disturbed that the people working the precinct appeared to be about 14 years old though.
March 2, 2004 06:17 PM
Clay Waterfill wrote:
"Nevertheless, I decided to drop by the precinct this afternoon and discuss the situation with the supervisor. To my surprise I received another ballot."
This is very disturbing! One person one vote is how it works.
March 2, 2004 06:13 PM
Ben wrote:
Kudos to all voters in prior posts who reported exemplary service on their computer ballots for the presidential primary. Unfortunately, my experience was much more akin to what happened to Artis, Julie and Jeff. I voted at the Virginia Avenue Baptist precinct at 7 a.m.. I did fill out the proper registration form and the ballot/card given to me offered only the choice of voting on the flag issue before it ejected. After many phone conversations and emails this morning, I was basically told by the Secretary of State's office and the Fulton Country Department of Elections that my ballot was cast and there was nothing to do about it. Nevertheless, I decided to drop by the precinct this afternoon and discuss the situation with the supervisor. To my surprise I received another ballot. In the explaination it was my understanding that only "nonpartisan ballots" were distributed to this precinct and these were passed along to the voters, regardless of registration. While I was delighted to get the chance to vote again this procedure only heightened a feeling that voting by computer iss unreliable and not "tamper-proof". Being provided with a "second-chance" also confirmed my knowledge that I did the right thing and the experience a precinct/ballot problem and NOT a voter issue. I suggest that if you have the time, drop back by the VA/HI precinct and see if you can correct the problem.
March 2, 2004 06:02 PM
Doug wrote:
All these people who are complaining they voted on a ballot that did have a presidential primary are just not smart. There is no such thing as the Non-Partisan Party. There was a Democratic and a Republican presidential primary today.
These are the kinds of voters Winston Churchill had in mind when he said, "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
March 2, 2004 05:50 PM
Greg wrote:
I'm a Republican but cast my vote for the Rev. Al Sharpton. One less vote for John Kerry. May the Roy Barnes "Rag" disappear forever from the Georgia landscape!
March 2, 2004 05:39 PM
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