| HB 0264 |
Oppose | EMSC Transparency Bill |
William Werkheiser |
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6/25/2020 |
House - House Conference Committee Appointed #2 116th, 157th, 16th |
Health and Human Services |
Ethics |
- |
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| This legislation sets forth requirements for lobbying disclosures when promoting or opposing any matter before one or more local coordinating entities. The bill also requires that all meetings be conducted in accordance with the open meetings statute and requires that each member of the local coordinating entity to comply with conflict of interest policies. The legislation also prohibits any employee, operator, contractor, or owner of an ambulance provider currently providing service for a territorial zone or of an ambulance provider that has submitted a proposal for a new ambulance service in such territorial zone from serving on any committee, subcommittee, or ad hoc committee that is involved in the seletion of ambulance provider for the zone or from voting on any proposals from ambulance providers for new service within the zone. The bill also sets forth procedures for appealing decisions and provides the final decision under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act. Finally the legislation requires the Department of Public Health to make recommendations to each local coordinating entity on benchmarks for accountability standards for each territorial zone. On and after October 1, 2020 each ambulance provider shall submit quarterly reports outlining the number of 911 calls received; the number of 911 call answered; the response times; and a copy of quarterly reports submitted to the local entity. |
| HB 0316 |
Support | Elections - Voting Machine Replacement and Elections Bill of 2019 |
Barry Fleming |
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4/2/2019 |
Effective Date |
Governmental Affairs |
Ethics |
- |
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| This omnibus elections legislation provides that the state will provide new, uniform voting machines for every county in Georgia "as soon as possible". Voting equipment would consist of ballot marking devices (electronic devices, similar to the DRE interface currently used) which produce a paper ballot that is then scanned into a recording device that tabulates votes. Among other election revisions, the bill provides additional notice before a voter's registration is rejected, before a felon is removed from the rolls, and to those appearing to have moved to another state; changes from 3 to 5 years the period of inactivity before a voter is removed from the rolls, also requiring notification prior to removal; requires counties to provide additional notice of any precinct changes; provides a cure period if a voter's signature on an absentee ballot does not mirror that used in registration; and lifts the 10-voter limit on persons assisting disabled or other individuals complete absentee ballots. Lastly, the bill enrolls Georgia in a 25-state collaboration - the Electronic Registration Information Center - to share voting information in order to track and cancel voters who move out of state. For a more thorough summary of HB 316, please click here.
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| SB 0022 |
Oppose | Absentee Ballot Privacy and Security |
Donzella James |
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1/17/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This legislation requires oath of the elector and any one assisting the elector be placed on a form within the ballot envelope. While ACCG understands the desire to protect a voter's personal information, this proposal effects the voter's right to cast a secret ballot by requiring them to put a voted ballot directly into an envelope containing the voter's name and personal information. |
| SB 0030 |
Support | Military Voters - Return Absentee Ballots by Fax or E-mail |
Kay Kirkpatrick |
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1/28/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This bill requires the State Election Board to establish procedures whereby military members (eligible to vote under the Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) can return their absentee ballot via fax or e-mail, in addition to regular mail. The Board will have to ensure the integrity of these ballots and has until January 1, 2020 to establish this procedure. |
| SB 0098 |
Neutral | Elections - Overseas Military Voters Could Rank Order of Preference |
Jesse Stone |
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2/14/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This bill requires the Secretary of State to prepare special absentee ballots for general primary runoffs and general election runoffs for those entitled to vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The elector would be allowed to indicate his or her order of preference for each candidate. This would allow the elector to only vote once, thus shortening the election season. |
| SB 0147 |
Evaluating | County Commissioners' Lobbying Restriction |
Emanuel Jones |
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2/21/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This bill prohibits elected city, county and school officials from registering as a lobbyist if he or she is compensated for the lobbying activities other than by their salary from their respective city, county or school district. |
| SB 0196 |
Evaluating | Voting Machines - Switch to Hand-marked Paper Ballots |
Harold Jones |
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2/27/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This legislation calls for replacing Georgia's current voting equipment with a system utilizing hand-marked paper ballots. ACCG supports tablet-marked paper ballots. |
| SB 0201 |
Negotiating | EMSC Transparency Bill - Requirement to Open Up EMS Zones Every Five Years |
Jeff Mullis |
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2/27/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This legislation sets forth requirements for lobbying disclosures when promoting or opposing any matter before one or more local coordinating entities. The bill also provides that no person may serve on the local coordinating entity in each health district for the EMSC program more than two years and may only serve as chairperson for one year. The proposed statute would set forth a new procedure whereby another health district would be the final arbitrator of appeals in any given health district. The proposal would also require that the local coordinating entity request new proposal from ambulance providers at least every five years. Additionally, there is new language that requires that each provider comply with safety standards established by the board which may be based on the national safety standards of the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services, and requires additional mandatory monthly reporting regarding calls and response times. |
| SB 0220 |
Evaluating | Primaries and Elections; new voting systems for use in elections in this state; provide |
Jennifer Jordan |
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2/28/2019 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| SB 0436 |
Neutral | Nonpartisan Elections - Remove Option for Courts, Schools and Consolidated Governments |
Jeff Mullis |
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2/25/2020 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| Current law authorizes, if passed by local act, the nonpartisan election of candidates to fill county judicial offices, local boards of education and offices of consolidated governments. This bill removes the option of having the offices filled via nonpartisan election. Current local acts authorizing nonpartisan elections remain in effect. This applies moving forward. |
| SB 0455 |
Neutral | Elections - Those 17 May Vote in Primary if They are 18 by Election |
Brandon Beach |
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2/28/2020 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This legislation allows those who are 17 years of age to vote in a partisan primary for an election if they will be 18 years of age by the time of the election. |
| SB 0463 |
Neutral | Elections - Several Changes to State Law |
John Kennedy |
|---|
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6/25/2020 |
House - House Withdrawn, Recommitted |
Governmental Affairs |
Ethics |
- |
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| Current law requires counties to provide one voting machine for each 250 electors for all elections. This bill still requires that ratio for general elections, but allows counties flexibility to reduce the amount of voting machines for other elections based on expected turnout, type of election, length of ballot, advanced voting and other factors. Also, counties which have precincts where voters experience longer than an hour wait time for an election must take measures to reduce that wait time by the next election by either reducing the size of the precinct or adding additional voting machines. The bill makes several other changes to clean up election law. For a brief summary of the bill, please click here. |
| SB 0487 |
Neutral | Ethics - Political Party Caucus Campaign Committees |
Bill Cowsert |
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3/4/2020 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Ethics |
- |
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| This changes state ethics law, requiring "political party caucus campaign committees" to file campaign contribution disclosure reports. These committees are defined as a committee, corporation, or organization chaired by the majority leader of the Senate or House, the minority leaders of the Senate or House, or the majority caucus chair of the Senate or House. The bill then spells out rules by which these committees may receive and disburse monies as well as other rules governing their campaign involvement. |
