Georgia’s abortion law, voting systems, Middle Georgia high school football and other news
Missed any of the big stories last week? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.
Macon lawyer named one of the best
John Christopher Clark, of Clark, Smith & Sizemore, was recognized by the Best Lawyers in American publication as the “2020 Personal Injury - Plaintiffs Lawyer of the Year in Macon,” according to a news release.
Clark received the honor in 2015 and 2017 as well.
Want to see other Middle Georgians recognized for their success? Read here.
Preps football is back
High school football is back in Middle Georgia, and reporter Justin Baxley can show you what Friday night looked like.
Some of the big games from the weekend included Westside’s victory over rival Southwest, 34-16, at the Macon Touchdown Club Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic.
Here’s more on last week’s action.
Georgia asks judge not to block the state’s new abortion law
Attorneys for the State of Georgia have asked a federal judge not to block the state’s new abortion law and to dismiss a challenge to it.
The ban is “constitutional and justified,” and the law “advances Georgia’s unique and substantial constitutional interest in protecting unborn human lives, in addition to its interests in protecting maternal health, encouraging childbirth, and safeguarding the integrity of the medical profession,” the attorneys said, according to the Associated Press.
The law, set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020, bans abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected — around six weeks. The ACLU and others filed a lawsuit against the state earlier this year in an attempt to block the law.
Georgia to reexamine new voting system after a petition from voters
Georgia’s Secretary of State office said last week that it would reexamine the state’s new election system as required by law after receiving a request from voters.
The Associated Press reports 1,450 Georgia voters signed the petition. The new election system prints a human-readable summary of a voter’s choices and a machine-readable bar code to count the votes. Critics argue that there’s no way for voters to confirm the code actually matches their selections.
The new machines passed equipment tests earlier this month. However, the company hired by the state did not evaluate the security of the new voting system, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The state law says those requesting the examination must pay “the reasonable expenses” for the examination. However, the petition requests a waiver of the fees. If the fees aren’t waived, the petitioners want the state to notify them before beginning the reexamination, AP reports.
Read more here.
This story was originally published August 26, 2019 at 11:10 AM.