You’ve heard certain figures say lately that the coronavirus pandemic has been licked, or that at least we’ve rounded some bend in the road. Here’s your proof that COVID-19 will be with us well into next year – as will efforts to discourage mass partying on Georgia and Florida beaches and elsewhere. From the Athens Banner-Herald:
University of Georgia students won't get a spring break next year, the university announced Thursday.
Instead, UGA is building three “instructional breaks" during its 2021spring semester — on Feb. 17, March 12 and April 8. Spring break had originally been penciled in for March 8-12.
…The reason for the change is to “promote the health and safety of the University of Georgia and local communities" in the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Many Southern universities, including Georgia Tech, have already done the same.
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We can’t but feel like the final days of the 2020 campaign reminds us more than a little of the rocky last stretch of the 2018 race for governor.
President Donald Trump visited Georgia on the Sunday before Election Day in 2018, upending the political calendar and requiring Channel 2 Action News to scuttle a final debate.
Trump’s plan to return to Georgia for a final push — either Sunday or Monday — has caused similar fallout in this race. And it gave U.S. Sen. David Perdue a handy excuse to avoid a final debate with Democrat Jon Ossoff.
There are other similarities. Tropical Storm Zeta forced some polling sites to close on Thursday and posed other complications, just as the more monstrous Hurricane Michael threw a wrench into early-voting in October 2018.
Here’s one more: On the Sunday before the 2018 election, then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp opened a probe into a “failed hacking attempt” by the state Democratic Party — an explosive allegation that was later thoroughly discredited.
Now, hackers have targeted a Georgia county’s election database with a very real ransomware attack, though our AJC colleague Mark Niesse reports it doesn’t affect the state election system:
“There is no connective tissue between those things, so I want to put everyone's mind at ease on that," Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system manager, said during a meeting Thursday of Georgia's new Safe, Secure, and Accessible Elections Task Force.
The hack has hindered Hall County’s ability to verify voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes, Sterling said.
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Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is returning to Georgia on Sunday, matching President Donald Trump’s same-day appearance -- ratcheting up the intensity of efforts to flip a state that hasn’t voted Democratic in a White House race since 1992.
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The final day of early voting in Georgia appears to have started smoothly, our AJC colleagues report. Lines are expected to grow throughout the day, however:
Voters reported short lines at polling places, with the longest waits at about an hour. Some locations had no lines at all.
Karla Adams called it “phenomenal" — a word she's never used when describing early voting in DeKalb County in the past.
“I've never experienced anything like this before," she said after finding a nearly nonexistent line at a former Sam's Club in Stonecrest. “I've always had to wait at least an hour, which is discouraging, even though you know you have to do it. I don't know what's going on everywhere else, but it's amazing here."
Power outages caused by Tropical Storm Zeta continued to keep some voting locations closed.
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The coronavirus contrast continues: Georgia Democrats are forgoing large “victory parties” and celebrating election night with mostly private events. Republicans are planning big bashes.
The Georgia GOP is hosting an “election night celebration party” with U.S. Sen. David Perdue at the Intercontinental Buckhead. Senate candidate Doug Collins will host his at Lake Lanier Islands, and his GOP rival, incumbent Kelly Loeffler, is planning her own.
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“We” did it. TV ad spending in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate races now tops $200 million thanks to a late infusion by the pro-Democrat Senate Majority PAC.
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Several days ago, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms acknowledged an increase in some violent crimes this year. From our AJC colleague J.D. Capelouto:
“We are seeing numbers we have not seen in Atlanta as it relates to our murder rate," Bottoms said during a press briefing with local media. “We recognize that this is a problem. ... Right now, our eye is on crime in Atlanta."
It’s not just happening in Atlanta, or cities governed by Democratic mayors. COVID-19 is largely to blame, according to the New York Times:
Criminologists studying the rise in the murder rate point to the effects the pandemic has had on everything from mental health to policing in a time of social distancing, with fewer officers able to perform the up-close-and-personal community outreach work that in normal times has helped mitigate violence. Experts also attribute the rise to increased gang violence and a spike in gun ownership, including among many first-time gun owners.
Which brings us to this anxiety-producing piece in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Walmart Inc has removed all guns and ammunition from the sales floors of its U.S. stores this week, aiming to head off any potential theft of firearms if stores are broken into amid social unrest.
The retail giant, which sells firearms in about half of its 4,700 U.S. stores, said customers can still purchase guns and ammunition upon request even though they are no longer on display.
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On Thursday, the 38-year-old rapper known as Lil Wayne had lunch with President Donald Trump, one of several in his genre who have endorsed the Republican incumbent’s re-election bid. The rapper, a.k.a. Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., Tweeted out a photo as proof:
Just had a great meeting with @realdonaldtrump @potus besides what he's done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership. He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done.
The endorsement did not go down well with director Spike Lee, a Morehouse College alum who headlined an hourlong “Shop Talk” event on Zoom, sponsored by Atlanta Democrats -- for the purpose of Black men to the polls.
According to our AJC colleague Maya T. Prabhu, who listened in, Lee said he didn’t understand how anyone could support the man he refers to as “Agent Orange” -- Trump’s name was not mentioned once during the program.
“It will be sad, because they went for the okey-doke,” Lee said. “I’ve just got my fingers crossed, toes crossed. And pray to God that we get delivered for the soul of the United States of America.”
Lee was joined by actor Hill Harper; Brandon Chubb, the NFL free agent and Georgia native, and sports commentator Michael Smith for a discussion moderated by radio host Mike Muse. And while the discussion centered on men, Muse acknowledged the decades of work women have put in supporting Democratic candidates.
Sarah-Elizabeth Langford, ex-wife of former mayor Kasim Reed, participated as well -- and said it felt much like a therapy session.
“It was almost like going to church, and it was also confirmation on why it’s so important to have leaders like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House and leading our country,” she said.
