 All right. Hello. I'm Scott Jones. I'm acting director of electronic frontiers, Georgia and You know tonight. We are very honored to have with us Representative Becky Evans for Georgia house district 83 This is state government by the way just to be clear on that So the state of Georgia is a bicameral system We have both a house and a Senate and not every state has that but but we do I think most of them do So I want to go ahead and get started with Becky Becky if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and your district And how you got interested in public service Great good. Well, thank you so much Scott and hello to electronic frontiers. I'm so glad to be with you tonight My name is representative Becky Evans and I've been serving in the door to house since 2018 so I'm in my second term and and house district 83 is an all the cab district 16 miles long and one mile wide and It is a gerrymandered district. It's a it's a snack district. So Anyhow, I have the I am so blessed to represent many unique and beautiful portions of many different neighborhoods I Run from Ellenwood Panthersville portions of Camelor McAfee Eastlake, Oakhurst portions of Decatur portions of Druid Hills and up to One clip, excuse me One thing that's helpful to learn about my district is to say all the Special places that other people may know about like Palombo Fine Arts is in our district Fernbank Natural History Museum Is in our district? The Olmstead Parks met most of them not all of them are in my district On the south end the Michelle Obama trail nature trail on the South River is in our district Georgia State at Panthersville is in our district the GBI headquarters for the state is in our district and And Eastlake golf course is in our district and Drew Charter school and Eastlake YMCA. So these are some of the Places that you may know in DeKalb County that are in house district 83 and as far as my background I was I Was born and raised in Dallas And my father was a civil rights and social justice activist and a profound influence on me And I came to study at Emory University, and I fell in love with Atlanta, and so I stayed Atlanta and her people as I stayed well I went back to Texas for two years, but then I transferred in my job back here and I worked for healthcare software company called HBO and company which is now McKesson and So I was a muted education and I get management with them and then when I was pregnant with my third child I resigned my husband was a big traveler a traveling salesman and So we did kind of revert back to more traditional ways there for a while where I was at home and a community organizer and our kids I went to public school I was did all the you know pk president and all that kind of stuff and I helped start a nonprofit at my kids high school and Then when they all graduated I Kind of felt a yearning to do something more and the school They went to was very diverse through at Hills High School, and so I kind of felt my world shrinking a little bit more than and I Senator Elaine apparent had just become our neighborhood senator and I reached out to her to see if I could help her in any way and I ended out being an aid on local issues to her for for three years and as I was working for her and After we had the 2016 election I Know I have several stories about all that about how I decided I basically I actually You know how I decided to run I Have loved ones, you know that are on both sides of the political spectrum So I basically woke up that morning when we are when former president Trump was elected I had to speak you know just fit in my stomach deep sadness. I felt like our country wasn't communicating We weren't really communicating well with each other and I and So anyhow, but then I had friends that moved into the women's We're going to March in Washington and I was like, you know, I can do that So I went with friends. I was very inspired and empowered by the women's March and then I came back from that experience and was working with center parent and I You know, basically kind of felt all the To run for office myself and it was a big decision. I did I did a talented fellow democlete incumbent and But It all worked out, you know, I love this job I love the opportunity to meet with people listen to people's concerns and I try to Think about legislation that can help solve problems and and so Here we are. So that's a little bit about me. I have three adult children They're all 20 something and they didn't need me looking over their shoulder all the time. So it's good that I have Have this have this job today, so yes, and I love to hide and I cycle recreationally and But I love walking neighborhoods. I love connected neighborhoods. That's something we have a lot of in central In the central and northern part of my district and I want to help work on our commissioners and and And parks and red people to have more connectivity in the southern part of our district Okay all right, I wanted to start off with our first question, which is to To find out more about the new voting law and obviously we had a number of laws, but I think There's a there is a big 98 page omnibus bill out there There certainly is I'm sure this is a well-read group as well. Yeah, so I'm sure you've heard about this song so I mean just kind of Talk a little bit about this legislative session before we go straight into the law So it was a very challenging legislative session I mean COVID overshadowed everything at the beginning and then this election law from the middle You know to the end really overshadowed everything except a lot of energy away from other topics. So And There was a lot there was kind of the mood of tension at the capital high tension over over this and And the other thing just I would say to kind of paint a picture for you is usually the capital You know as a hot bed of your active this coming people come into the rope lines and and if the place There's just a lot of physical interaction and connection and of course we couldn't do that and so We really missed the people in the hallways But of course it was the right thing to do, but also the legislators were more separated We were usually they're 180 of us there on the house floor together But about this summer and in this session we were spread out in three areas The ones with more seniority there on the house floor and then I was up in the gallery balcony, and then there's a room 341 and and This summer we all had to vote by roll call, but for this session we were able to vote electronically So we had a little special lap lap ads to you know vote on But also what was what what I feel like I noticed more was Well, basically like when you're when you're first together, I mean when we were first elected I was surprised about how much interaction there was like Between parties and we're not seated by party So you have seat mates of one party and the other party on either side of you you get to know people more on it You know just to people to people basis, but this session since we were more separated I Felt like and also maybe over this election line of course active the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th there was just more division attention and less you're talking with with chatting with one another so anyway this all contributed to this height and tension over the selection law so and There were You know and basically I will say is I mean, you know The art gave the Democratic Party was able to take the presidency and to get to US Senate seats So that was so exciting for us, you know, but for the majority party in the house in that Senate they Felt like they had to know pass this election. Well, they had no choice So that is and you know, we feel like many of these measures would not have passed But they have won those elections, you know, they would not have put all these measures in place. So But basically I'm going to divide this up. I really like how the ACLU talked about Senate bill 202 And so I'm sorry, and I want to go back one more thing. So there was another bill earlier in the session that had a lot of election reform a lot of election changes and House will 535 and on the Senate they had another on this film and So like the house passed the 535 and that was on a purely partisan vote It's the only Opposition that you heard the House Democratic officer was to be against that bill I went to the Senate the Senate bill came to the house and then the head, you know The head of the special committee on election integrity. He put together this new bills Senate bill 202 and I I think you all might know as far as How crazy it can be that like this goes a two-page bill that he stripped And he put, you know added another 96 pages to and basically took fortunes of all these different laws They talked about but it did remove Senate bill 202 That does not have the most draconian measures And I want to thank any of you there activists because activists really helped a lot of people come testify so it does not it does not include out the registration because you know in Georgia when you go to get your driver's license You're automatically up again to be registered to vote And that's a good thing. That's helped to get really increase our voter registration numbers by quite a bit It did not eliminate note skew sats and keep voting and In some areas of the state it does increase Mandated in-person voting Okay, so it's in this law. They're two Saturday mandated and two optional Sunday mandated So it preserves the right for the souls for the polls of the Sunday voting So So those that's those are some good things that were set, you know, so that um but This is a suppressive law this this bill does make it harder to vote for certain populations and Basically for people that maybe are working those two and three jobs and it's just like voting isn't top of their mind all the time that The Republicans were very smart about seeing where some of our margins were just chipping away at those edges and making it harder in certain times. So um, basically first year uh, this uh They're concerned with this with Sentinel 202 and allows the state legislature to take over county elections through the control of the state election board and um and to take over You know the secretary of states no longer the head of the election board and Uh, so of course, you know some see this as a punishment for Rappensburger many of us view this as Uh, they they see very well. We could have an executive branch of Of democrats and so basically they wanted to remove the secretary of state from that role. So that But this is a grave concern this potential state takeover especially for our large county, you know, Colton and DeKalb um And I did talk after the though I finally talked with the republican a reasonable republican colleague of mine that used to be a seatmate and he was saying Well, Becky, it's just like it was with the when you know for the schools when we had the Turnover officer for the state school And I think that's so ironic I mean, I was like, but you know what that was so unpopular and that actually was voted down It was a referendum that was voted down by the people of Georgia and and this is the most unpopular provision in this bill because all local county elections and election boards want to keep control of their elections so This is the that's the number one thing I've just built dramatically decreases Um acts absentee by mail voting. So the days that you you can um The amount of days that you have to request an absentee ballot have dramatically decreased um And it makes runoffs virtually impossible to administer by moving them to 28 days after the general election So you may remember I mean the senate race was nine weeks later Was exceptionally long and I think courts obviously worked on our advantage And one in george is the only state That has that we were you have to have a majority you have to have over 50 to win. So, um Instead of changing that law Instead they, uh, excuse me and because of that law Um several years ago, uh, there was a ruling where we had to in order to allow for absentee In the military overseas ballots. We we had to have this longer time for a runoff So that's why we have the nine week runoff So in this new bill we will the overseas and military will do ranked choice voting and that's something i'm i'm glad to see that happening And you know some municipalities are doing that now as well um, we can talk more about that if you have questions about that And so they said, okay, if we do ranked choice for overseas and military You can have a four week election But but most of us feel like that is still too little time because If if if if the loser of the election in November wants to challenge You know, they have the royal efforts votes are counted to challenge then um literally if they If they want, you know, want to do a recount then You literally would be the recount have that certified and then it would be time for the runoff I mean there's like just not enough time in there. Um, and even if you don't have a recount um There is just going to be a week of in person at early vote in Excuse me a week of early in person voting and if it's over Thanksgiving, it's only two or three days So this runoff period is is really a problem And yeah, so those are the first tier and this is according to the aclu and i trust the aclu So and then the second tier you've heard a lot about the criminalization of things like criminalizing giving Water to folks when they're within 150 feet of the line um, but it has other things that Are just you're like, oh my god, what are we? Why are we doing this? Like I I didn't get to attend the committee hearings early on because I was on other committees at the time for the end The very end of Senate bill 202 the last hearing I was able to attend And they added a provision at that where it criminalizes your battle. Uh, you cannot If someone watches you fill out your ballot That's like they're committing a crime. They're committing a misdemeanor I mean come on. It's like it's creating this police state of supervision or intimidation. Yeah um And then the big thing out there's another meeting with provisional ballots. So um provisional ballots, you know Or out of precinct ballots where like perhaps if you saw you had a big um, uh, you know, you could go vote Early vote at this one place for the for the previous three weeks while election day you might go there a vote Well, you can't do that. You could go to your local precinct and Um, how current law works is that your vote if you go ahead and vote there They let you fill out a provisional ballot and your votes count for any of the race or any statewide races But your votes wouldn't count for your local right like a few first state rep Maybe, you know, you might be out of precinct or whatever so um But in this new law provisional ballots, um Are not counted until five o'clock if you go to the wrong precinct between five and seven You can fill out a provisional ballot, but then there's you know, a very strenuous review of that too, but um And representative be when who was um uh head of like He basically was our The democratic party person looking over all this stuff and she was really active in uh In the Atlanta area, but she had this there was this one polling precinct in Fulton right of 600 votes cast on election day 300 were provisional So this is really an effective Unfortunately, this is one of the way like and there were 10 000 people that voted provisionally in the senate race so So and these are basically people maybe they aren't you know, they have a lot of other stuff going on going on in their lives And they might just not you know, so so these people will be this and I mean, you know what they say is that you go to the real precinct and that's true If you are working through three jobs, maybe you want time to go to that precinct or something So that's a bit. That's that's a big problem. And then um And then the the last key big point I'd make Is that this the citadel 202 will create county budget shortfalls Through cuts and unfunded mandates. So it's going to overwhelm these county budgets like They have and Like they have to print paper ballots on a special Paper which is like 50 percent more expensive. Um, they Uh A big thing and this is something that's probably the county elections board lobbyist about a big concern and this kind of goes back to that number one item this All these things are mandated for counties, but they can't um They have they have to count the votes through the night Like they can't stop and go home and then come back So and this was mainly in the big counties where this is an issue So I I do think I mean, you know knowing about it You can plan and you can plan for a second ship to come in but it is a burden It's a it's a it's a burden on counties to do that and and also they have to certify within six days instead of 10 days so, um Uh, but there are some some good things in the bill that That that the the republicans say that you should be able to do these things one of the good things is is that counties Will have to they have they can open and process absentee ballots I think two weeks ahead of time and that is really good news So they can't count them that they can prepare them and then they run them through the machine that day so So they should that should go more quickly and They did allow that to happen in the general election in dorgia But you may remember up in pennsylvania and some of these other states They didn't allow them to do that and that's one reason why the votes took so long to count um And the other thing I don't know it's not an acle you can't believe it. I'm just looking at the other thing is dropboxes The uh dropboxes were something new in our 2020 election. It was very effective And uh, you know, they we had like 38 in the fag county. There were in many We had one in our local fire station. They were open 24-7. We had camera security Well in this new provision The dropboxes you can only have one per hundred thousand and so we'll have like nine eight or nine into cap county and And they have to be located inside And the other thing is they can't so and they and you can't drop off the ballot after that friday before the election and we had Tens of thousands of votes that were counted that were dropped off And the 2020 election on saturday sunday monday tuesday of the of the of the election. So that Is another kind of way where i'm saying it really does suppress and marginalize, you know Our our voters who just have these super busy lives, you know, um, so There we have it I guess, you know, at least getting the word out about how things have changed is going to be Very important. Yes. Yeah, it's going to be very important. Yes. So we will look, you know, you know, right now I mean the the bill is being contested by, um, you know, I think there are five lawsuits now There were four now. They're five. So the courts may the courts are slow, you know, so it's unlikely I mean, it's possible. We might hear some decisions before the municipal elections. I don't know but um But we will need to plan strategize and organize and communicate. Yes. And um, And the big thing too, I mean, then of course, we had the whole voter ID, which is another huge thing. Um, So there are 200 to 300 thousand georgians that don't have a state ID or our driver's license. So, uh But this is something we needed to work on anyway, even in this last election There were high school kids who just they had their high school ID and that's not good enough to vote And they didn't have their state issued ID and they hadn't gotten their driver's license yet and they had to be turned away. So um I think you're gonna see a lot of education on And help we need to help people, you know Have different groups help people get their their ID Because you know, it is on or I don't know how many of you've gotten to get your driver's license in the past few years, but you know, you have to have Like two things that show your address and then like your birth certificate. I mean, it's a it's a pretty Uh, and they scan all this stuff too all the all the documents they scan them Right, right. So they keep the images of them. Right. So that's um Uh So we'll need to work together on that. So look for communication from your from me or your fellow representatives And then there are other good advocacy groups out there and I do want to give a shout out to our A local media. I think that land and journal constitutions have been doing an excellent job of covering politics I mean, I like listening and reading. Yeah, they helped me learn things. I'm maybe good now And I'm also a big fan of our public video and television station wade and gpb so, um So I'll just put in a plug if you don't subscribe to those organizations I encourage you to do that because the free press is really critical to our democracy and uh, yeah Okay, so any questions about the voting bill before I go on or here. I see it in the chat now. I've been going on Yeah, I mean, we yeah, I do kind of want to keep it moving because we've got about 20 minutes left to cover that Okay, okay I Know that's a good point Frank that someone has yes you have to Uh, you have to have more of an idea to vote than you do to buy a gun Isn't that crazy? So, um, and they're publishing the voting law changes. Um Uh, they're on they'll be out there on our um Well, that's a good point. Let's see. What are they? I mean, of course the law is under your legislature. Um And oh good. Okay. Frank is saying you did have to have your driver's license and your carry license He had last time you bought a gun. I'm not sure that you're You don't Have to have a carry license to buy a gun though, right? I'm almost positive about that But um, okay, let's see Um, how are they going to publish the voting law changes? I mean, it's been you know in the news quite a bit and um As far as the websites where you can say these are the voting You know, this is election law. Um I'm you know, I would say I mean I go to acou and fair fight but that's uh And then I go, you know, just you can look on the georgia legislature, but um I would say those are the places I would go to I would go I would go to see the actual full voting law But you can go to georgia like you start and see the see the bill and the 988 bill and um And also the ajc has a good bill tracker. You can pull it up that way too. Okay. And thank you got there frank about You have to call the FBI with your big They call the FBI with your social security number for the gun thing All right, I want to switch over to the redistricting so that we okay good good good good to get covered with everything Yes, so every 10 years we redistrict. Um And to make sure that you have fair representational, uh Fair representation And so as you know, we had our census the 2020 census where everyone lived, you know, I think on april 20th of 2020 Is that right? It was one day in april and um And because of coveted census was delayed and usually the census numbers come out in april and um The final census numbers and this year the final census numbers will not come out until the end of september But we do have we did have a release this past week of the Initial numbers and you may have read or heard in the news that um, georgia Will keep the same number of congressional districts. Um, we did not regroup. I've got a million in population but um, it did get a new new seat The last census And north carolina didn't basically north carolina got a new congressional seat this time And uh florida got one texas got two um, or again, you talk about one, but anyway, so that's based on the census So for redistricting, um, the georgia legislature Has control of drawing these new maps for redistricting And so in some states you have independent redistricting but in georgia it is the The house of representative starts and then the house and senate and then the governor will sign So we do have a republican track like this. So they will Have the control to draw these districts and the supreme court has ruled that um partisan That you can You can draw maps according to partisanship. You cannot draw maps according to race um, so uh And race is a is a is a key thing that you look at to make sure that that different races have you know adequate representation that um Uh, but anyhow So it's going to be very important for The public to be as involved as possible and I was telling skype earlier that Um In the georgia house democratic caucus our leadership has that we've had five different we're going to have five different redistricting Um conversations to learn a lot about it all about it And I would really recommend for those of you that interested there are A political science professor charles bullock at university of georgia has written a great book about redistricting and we opened with that And it was so informative. Um and Uh We I will say both parties have been very partisan when they've had control of the house and when you look at the last map the maps that That we drew in 2000 When when when there was governor barns and we were democrats were trying to retain control Uh, we drew some really crazy districts and we had um Uh, what do they call it at large districts which were declared unconstitutional where we had You're elected three people in a bigger area kind of like the size of a synod area But you didn't really know all three people represented all the districts. So um So Uh, we will we will see what happens with this But as you as you may well know the rural areas have lost population and metro and suburban areas have greatly gained in population and um so We are going to do our best To talk with our folks and we want to talk a lot about Communities of interest that this is the this is the best way to draw maps that really represent the communities. Um and and But but the the only thing that the law requires is that there's equal representation that it's purported like every district is Basically, you know equal in population. That's that's the one person one vote so, um The peer reportionment is a woman named body Bonnie rich representative. Bonnie rich. Um, she's up from the in the swiney area And she told a colleague of mine that there would be 12 public meetings Starting in june. Um, but I haven't seen anything written about that and that is from the That is from the legislature But there's a really wonderful group called fair districts and I want to encourage you all excuse me to look into that and they are um an independent advocacy group non-partisan advocacy group that really is going to process to uh, be transparent and accountable about how we're drawing our maps and having lots of public meeting and input and so That's a they're doing several town halls. So that's something I would just encourage you all to get involved with and then I'm still waiting to hear what we're going to do as a caucus but I think based on this what we're doing that will You know have some tools some assessment tools to go out into our communities and And get some feel on What fair districts would look like And the software now has really gotten quite Uh, it's it's excellent. And so they We can all submit maps. We can submit our own maps. I mean, of course, we're not going to I mean, I'm not going to necessarily Do it on my own. I'm going to work with a lot of other people, but you know, you can suggest maps For different districts. So Okay Okay, um Let me move on and we'll pick up the questions later Okay But let me move on here so that we can try to get through the five items by eight o'clock So uh hb 134 and hb 156 Uh, I I'm going to bring these up just quickly But these are bills that seek to exclude certain cyber security information from open records requirements And in general, yes, you don't want an attacker to be able to Make an open records request to find out exactly how to attack the state networks But at some point, uh, you might want to you know, I there is a public interest In finding out if the state did have a breach at some point in time And and is the state doing what the state needs to do? To be able to protect itself Um, and I mean there is a certain public interest. There's a Interest for reporters and and just general citizens and so it's hard to find the right balance there And that can be difficult Now andi, I noticed that you're typing if you want to jump in and and say something about this because I know you've Taken a look at these bills that feel free to turn on your camera and your microphone if you want to Jump in on this a little bit, but So what I I haven't looked at the status of these I think one of them made it all the way through to the governor's desk I'm not sure if the other one did But you know, I don't see any point in in trying to ask for a veto on these that that That we should look at maybe a fixed bill in the next session So one of the bills has already been signed. I've posted a link to a blog post that I wrote earlier today One of the bills has already been signed into law Uh, and the other one has not been and uh, in my write-up on my blog post. I I straight up asked governor kent DeVito Uh, the bill that's sitting on his desk right now um The the 134 bill Let me bounce over here and make sure I'm talking about the right bill at the right time but the The 134 bill Is the bill that carves out Just a massive hole That will basically allow Any governmental entity to hide From any public discussion all about anything cyber security related with the way the language is currently written Um, and scott, you made the point that you've got to strike a proper balance between Protecting your operational concerns, which are legitimate versus public oversight and citizen overview Uh, in my read of this bill They've swung simply way too far in the in the direction of we're not going to talk about anything And uh, we've already seen governmental entities like city of atlanta and others Hide behind existing language Uh, that's already on on the books in terms of law to claim that they're not going to talk about Things like the city of atlanta ransomware attack Uh, as well as the recent, uh solar winds breach and just trying to find out City of atlanta won't even talk about whether or not they use solar winds much less whether they use the Infected version of solar winds that that was out there And uh, and I worked with richard belcher at wsb on this and they just stonewalled it And uh asked him yeah asked him to reach out to to other entities gwinnett county Uh, I think he reached out to the camp. They were a bit more forthcoming But overall there's a sense in In general, we're not going to talk about anything cyber and the public doesn't need to know it We're going to hide behind the language of well, we're protecting our operational interests when we can't let the bad guys know what we're doing Um, and in that in the abstract, I agree with that concept But you've got to find the proper balance and this this bill is currently written in sitting on governor kemp's desk I don't think does it at all So is one is 134 um one that has not been signed yet Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, one thing I was talking with scott about that. Um Uh, I mean, I do think it's good to know that you you know, you asked him to be there. That's that's helpful information um And then what I said to scott is is that if you all want to suggest alternate language There and that line's 49 through 54, you know, um Uh If you you know or or say That would be good or and if you and if you don't have alternate language you're saying your specific issues and I would be happy to bring an amendment or you know, I'd be happy to talk to the sponsor of the bill who Was a new legislator and he seems like a reasonable guy to me uh, victory anderson. So we can but we can certainly you know Try to address this this issue if you want in next session and if it's not, you know If we have more success it would be good to request a meeting with him I would I would suggest maybe you all asked to meet with him and uh and With your ideas about how it can be improved um and then uh If he says i'm not going to do it then that's okay, but You never know Right so and that for that reason i'm hoping that that the governor will will veto it as it currently says and ask the the general assembly for a for more tailored Version of this bill that that he could sign off on because again the the concerns are legitimate They've just swung way too far with with that language right 156 It has already been signed into law And what we're seeing what we're seeing here is the theme of we're not going to talk about solve security incidents at all um And so uh 156 creates Uh a couple of new code sections and uh the second code section that they created is fine um Where it just gives the governor the authority to make a determination about a memorandum of agreement You know that language is fine And that's section 38-3-23.2 Uh for your legislative gear heads, I guess like i'm becoming slowly, but surely Um Between which portion It is uh, so are you looking at the bill itself? I have a printed version of the bill right now Okay, so uh page four lines 72 That language is fine. That makes sense. That's no problem Looking at page three Everything in uh going from page two starting at line 18 where they where they Create section 38-3-22.2 Uh everything from line 18 down to 65 is okay. That language Requires entities governmental entities and utilities to report to home state homeland security Uh when they suffer of an incident and that's reasonable and that language calls closely with what's happening at the national level And if I recall correctly, they even say that if you report to the national level, you've met your due diligence Uh for the state in terms of reporting for awareness purposes The problematic section is lines 66 and 67 on page three We're once again, they just carved out a wholesale exemption saying none of the reporting that you get under this under this code Uh is is going to be subject to public inspection or disclosure um now I heard uh An interview with another I did something with uh with I think it was belcher on this one or somebody else I don't remember who it was but um The the senator who is one of the senators who's sponsoring the bill I said well, we don't want the bad guys to know what we're doing And uh, it's a great argument it plays well on tv But it's nonsense and the reason why it's nonsense Is that the bad guys are already in your network at this point in time The reports that you were getting as a result of Of the requirements here and the and the mandating for the reporting are after the fact And so uh any any documentation or reporting That you get uh exposed to this is uh is The proverbial horse has already left the barn and um And so if they're really concerned about keeping the stuff closed whole fine Carve out an exemption that says we're gonna hold this The these particular class of records For 30 days 45 days Right if you're concerned that the incident is still ongoing you don't want to you don't want to turn the documentation loose Um, okay, that's fine theoretically. I can understand the argument But you you you put a timeline on it you put you put uh You put an end of life on it and say after this point in time these records Are no longer exempt from public examination Um, and and you go on from there uh Frank made a comment here That they can make every meeting about cyber security and then Uh, absolutely bypass any public disclosure and that we're that's going back to a previous one. Yeah, you can talk about You can talk about 30 seconds and and then yeah, it's it's it's a little size of the mac talk. So um That's that's what I've got Well, I appreciate Andy. Thank you so much and um and you know scott had brought this to my attention I'm really glad to be listening to you all and um If you so I guess I would say if it has passed then maybe what The same type thing is that if you have If you want to work with me to You know create language to Or I mean, I know this guy here. I mean, uh, don persons is a I mean, we could ask the bill sponsor if you'd be willing to take an amendment on um And like I said, all I can do is say no and if he says no then I can submit it We can get it on the record, but it's more effective to go to the bill sponsor um and ask them for their consideration and And let them hear directly from you So if you if you'd be interested in me facilitating in any of those conversations with those two bill sponsors I'm happy to do that I'm happy to help where I can Okay, well, let's I'll I'll try to keep this moving and let's let's have some more Conversations over the summer and we may have an opportunity before before one of them gets signed too So I'll try to keep this moving in the background Um, Andy, I want to thank you for that. Um, but I do want to move on to our last Two topics here Um to wrap it up pretty soon I'm gonna step away. You'll have a good evening represented Evans. Thanks for your time. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to meet you Thank you. You too. Thank you so much. Stay healthy I wanted to move on to the topic of rural broadband and just spend a few minutes on that It's something that we want to support to the extent that it's, you know, that we can do that in a meaningful way Um, but you know, I live in a pretty urban area and your district is fairly urban So, um, I'm I'm still kind of playing catch up on that But yeah, I do think it's something that would benefit the entire state And it would help balance things out between rural and urban Areas if we if we have a way to to kind of equalize You know or make it proportional Um to get, you know, better service out to the rural areas so that we're not You know, putting people on dsl speed or we're not asking them to drive down to a coffee shop or something like that Right. Well, this is a huge priority for for Georgia. Um and uh And there there's been broad support in the legislature to support rural broadband And it is getting expanded quite a bit. I I forgot to look up the numbers. Um, and I I regret I don't have that handy I apologize for that. Um for for this session, but I do know also in the cares act a lot of Money is being used for rural broadband and for the cares act So this is an issue for our schools, you know, for education and workforce development And it's an issue for companies, you know, if you want to you need to have good access to broadband In order to have jobs so, uh This you know this since I've been in the legislature the state as you know, they've created ways for like, you know The the co-ops to provide by they've tried to create more avenues for for for for broadband But uh, this is like the first budget where we've been at we're actually allocating funds to rural broadband So, um, I would just say we share that You know, we agree with you This is a huge national priority for the federal government as well. Um, so, um I'm hopeful about it, but I probably need to do a little more homework myself to give your report back on Um, I I I was not able to to gather all my data together about what the status is right now Um, I will say there is still a need, you know in in it in our area Like for example in in our district down there by Georgia state at panthersville in the gbi building There are neighborhoods down there that only have one provider and it's and they and they It's very slow Like they don't have You know, we're so lucky around where we live we have 5g and all that kind of stuff, you know, um in google fiber and all that and um But uh, so there are pockets in South the cab and I imagine in parts of south Atlanta I don't know where they're taught any competition and there's for for good Internet access and they still have very slow service Well, I heard her story from a librarian and this was not in georgia but a woman came into the library because um, she didn't have internet access and she was in this situation where She couldn't afford to buy a phone because she didn't have a job But in applying for a job they required to send a text back to your phone um Before before you could go through this acceptance process So they assumed that you have a phone Uh, and she couldn't get the phone because she didn't have a job and she couldn't get the job because she didn't have a phone Yes, yes So I think we're in a situation where we might still have a few legislatures out legislators out there who think that internet is is a luxury item And well, I think that I think that has no, I think that has changed. I think it's just the issue of um You know, they they initially they wanted it all they wanted it to be Where they just created the avenue to make it more competitive for Different providers to come in because it's yeah, it's expensive and if they're not a lot of people there you have to figure out How it's going to get paid for so now It's becoming more and more a condition of citizenship Exactly. Yes. No, I I agree with you and I think the legislatures on board. This is a bipartisan thing where there's been agreement especially this year so um But uh As far as you know, we always say the budget is a reflection of your Of your priorities and morals. So I'm not sure How big a proportion but I do know this year for the first time we did really Give some good funding to it Yes, and you're right frank. It's just like rural electrification Yeah, and I wonder if we will move toward universal service At some point that would be fabulous, wouldn't it? Yes um Yes, and what was the last thing we wanted to talk about? Um, the last thing I wanted to bring up quickly Uh was the police surveillance tech reform? um, obviously there's been a lot of um public concern about how policing is done these days and the goal of this is not to come down on the police But to maybe come down on the vendors because there's a lot of vendors out there That are selling solutions and some of them may be just fine, but then some of them may violate our right Which are not Just give me a finish here. Some of them are not um Really, we're not really getting our money's worth and an example of the latter case There was a system in utah. It was sold to utah for 20 million dollars It was an artificial intelligence surveillance system And they had to do a security review on it and as a result of the security review They determined that the system had no artificial intelligence in it whatsoever And so oh my god Yes, so they spent 20 million dollars in utah on a system and they basically got flummoxed by his vendor So we feel like that's going on over and over again that it's it's just a little bit too easy to sell jump to to um, maybe some elements of law enforcement or maybe the um, you know city councils or or county county boards or whatever there needs to be more review so um There's a movement to try to get more review into this process and it's called c cops. It's a community What is it community? Control over police surveillance or or something like that and um, so you know, it's it's a An attempt to get some more review into this process You want to look at are our rights really being protected because it's not incumbent on the vendor to do that It's incumbent on the government, but also is the state getting its money money's worth Well, I I'm yeah, I'm so glad to learn about that and um I will say georgia is priding itself. We have the we have the cyber security center in augusta Are you all familiar with that? Oh, yeah, and so um Um, you know, I know they want to think that they would never get uh, they would never get had like I guess you talk to um, but uh I think this is good. So I am On this ai intelligence What do you think how what kind of role would you see the legislature have? you know What I think is that efforts around the country are starting at the city level and so it may just be a matter of Staying out of the way initially so that we get this done at a city level And we have sort of a model to follow And once you have that model to follow you can scale it up The problem in metro atlanta is we have at least 70 different districts that are city or county governments and so there's a lot of them so Maybe at some point you do want to scale it up to the state level But what usually happens is we start at the city level and we move up from there And that's being done in other places like st. Louis and portland in Berkeley and in new york city Uh, we're in touch with some of these groups that are that are doing Work out there. That's kind of similar good I would say, you know We could look at it in the atlanta indicator, but you might look at cities like brookhaven Like that would be interesting, you know, if you're doing anything because they are a city with Their own police force and um, and and a good tax base so so, uh Yeah brookhaven shambly doorville see if they're Because they might be some of the first to adopt some of this stuff. Maybe even more. I don't know I'm just you know, I really don't know that Um, I would look at more than just atlanta indicator Okay, and I think that this is just an introductory Conversation, I think this will go on. I think this may be a long process Okay, we feel like we ought to be with this, but I wanted to bring it up Um, I guess the last and final i'll do the the first q and a or the last and final thing I wanted to talk about If you're someone who's interested in running for, um Public office somewhere, what advice would you give to them? If there's somebody here in your group? Yes, thank you for asking. Um I would say do your research Um, uh know your community know where you would be running um If you if you Are running against an incumbent, you know for your research on the incumbent. Um, it's an open seat. That's a little different Uh, reach out to community leaders. Um, you don't need endorsements from other political or elected officials. You need Respected community leaders and influencers to to you need to gain their trust and support um So that's what I mean, but do your research. There's a lot of great political training That's and good reading that's available um And and then talk to talk to other If you if you're interested, you know You're welcome to come talk to me or talk to uh Other elected officials just to get you know their feedback on things. Yeah And it does take money to run a campaign Takes money. So you have to be willing to ask people for money. So Um Yeah Yeah, but it's mainly you know your community leaders that will help you and then if you have and it takes a team Like I had a team of supporters to help me I mean and I try to keep the team approach as much as I can. Yeah Okay, um, so I want to open it up to other questions now You can either type your question or feel free to turn on your camera and your microphone if you'd like to um, you know if you'd like to jump in Uh and and ask a question live um So we'll be open to questions now If you'd like to go ahead and do that I'd like to come back because I can't see the chat At all for some reason um, so First of all Could you type your chat can be minimized? And if you see a little the chat can be minimized If you see the little icon at the top left looks like a head and shoulders Yes, narrow click that the chat That's not the problem. I see it No, it's it's not a problem. I don't want to waste uh representative evans's time. Um, could you um type in the chat Um your newsletter or how we can follow you Because I wanted to do that. I follow a lot of different people Even if I'm not in their district And also one of the things that was mentioned about broadband So what I've been learning from different people in the community is that um, I think we need to work on education about Why broadband would be the best thing to do scott? You can help me with this because there's a lot of it's it's kind of a vendor issue where people talk about 5g Or they talk about satellite um But my understanding is that if you don't have the broadband first that you can't actually do the other things Am I wrong about that? Scott does that did we not learn this like we need broadband because broadband is the base and then we need When other people kind of start talking about who their favorite is that that's fine There may be a reason for some of that but that's actually like another Technology that's coming into play And I feel like that's where we're getting lost in the politics because I know specifically I watched closely about the committees So albers was really pro satellite and 5g. He liked he was talking a lot about like oh broadband is too expensive We can't do broadband except that I think he was doing that because he liked the people that were going to be The people that were his favorites in business as as they do and um But you know senator gooch on the other hand was um been working on this for quite a while And he seemed like that would be something that I would want to speak with him about So that he can understand when he wants to have like different um groups whether they're electrical membership cooperatives or whatever involved in this so that different business partners could make money That we want to be like promoting the broadband. We don't want to be talking about the other things Um, at least this is what I've learned by people smarter than me And I thought that that's something we could work on because I feel like that Um for the people in the minority party that don't often get to speak in the committee That that's a good talking point because the broadband is Uh what we really need to be That that is that is what um We need to be educating people that that is the backbone that we need to have that if you think you're going to just put 5g throughout rural georgia You're still going to have to have the broadband in order for the 5g to work Am I wrong about that? Is anybody from san francisco want to tell me i'm wrong about that because I believe that that's what I was learning The backhaul frank said it perfectly the backhaul for all the 5g's broadband now the difference is It's different running broadband just the towers as opposed to running to every single person's home Different scale But if we're answering the equity question we want we want to promote broadband Well broadband is irrespective of its transmission method It could be a cable. It could be wireless doesn't really matter It just has to be ubiquitous And it actually has to be fast enough. That's one of the other problems of wireless is density Yeah, frank just posted it. Yes. There's the issue of cost density and also For instance to get blanket 5g coverage of every rural area You don't have the population base to warrant the tower structure for the limited radiation footprint of 5g Whereas in a case like that satellite would work better Where you start is a very good example Of broadband. It's not online yet. Everything I've been following on it looks really good The downside is you've got a monopoly that most people can't compete with and so Where that leads in the long run? We don't know. We also don't know about backhaul yet on on them It'll look there in theory. It looks good. Everything they've said so far has proven to be what they said it would be But it isn't done yet. So we'll see But the issue of broadband is very very important. I mean I worked at Georgia Tech and we got literally three days notice that everybody was going home Now mind you I already worked full-time come home, but Everybody had to go home. Now we transition that very very rapidly and very very well But if you talk to the people out near Augusta or Lake Ocone They don't even have dial-up And or I remember we had a contractor this a long time ago, but we had a contractor lived up in smoke rise or not smoke up by Helena Helen in Georgia and up in that area and he didn't have He could only get a party one. You can't have a modem on a party one. So they had no connectivity at all So that's better. In fact, they get better connectivity there now than I get my living Tucker or near Tucker In fact, there's a street Block off Main Street Tucker that can get no broadband whatsoever from any carrier So and that's not rural Yeah, yeah, it's it's a serious problem Yes, no, I I hear you and um I'm not yeah, I I don't I absolutely agree that it's a huge economic issue and I and it's it's it's economic And of course it was even driven how more it was educational issue, which is of course becomes an economic issue So I'm not at all down playing. I I will say it's just something I'm not as uh Up to speed on that I um But I do Uh, I agree with you that this is a huge issue So I would and it sounds like many of you are Or check at least was monitoring the committee meeting. So What would be good one of the things I I try to do is I have a uh You know subject matter experts I turn to um, like I have an education person and a healthcare person. So maybe I you want y'all to be my my uh, my Oh, like I don't know what he called electronic frontier or I don't know or Digital person or whatever and then you can help me in the department bills are coming up. I can make sure If we need to amplify certain viewpoints like I can we can do that, you know Oh, I'm glad to help you. I am not the subject matter expert, but I know them and I am very good Right I imagine most of them do you know I'm sure that the people sponsoring these bills are talking You know just to good people too, but you want to you know, we can make sure that whatever This group is concerned about that That your perspective is being heard. You know, we can make sure of that at least Yeah, you know you're interested in the equity question so that all people in Georgia can have Access and that is wonderful and I'm very interested in that and I'd say, you know Really, and I know of course the democratic caucus is I think our republican colleagues Everyone's favorite line is how to get a great education regardless of zip code. That's the you know what we all say and and I think most of us really believe that and so um We're interested in equity question too so Yeah, there's the other political factor. There's a lot of people who own a piece of that political pie There's the incumbents who don't want necessarily things to change There there's competition issues. There's all kinds of ghouls stop putting out their fiber because Every time they wanted to run fiber to a neighborhood the incumbents fought them tooth and nail To get them blocked legislatively so they weren't allowed to do that's why you're seeing Areas come out now and say that They're opening to uh community broadband Which is essentially saying, okay thumbs up at the the incumbents We're gonna allow the community to build their own broadband And in most cases where the community is kind of like a co-op has built their own broadband They get better and faster service than the current incumbents and i'm talking concast AT&T incumbents It's not politicians. You're talking about concast and AT&T. Is that right? Oh, yeah, they have they have millions of dollars from lobby and everything else It gets very very hairy making teams of lawyers can write all kinds of stuff and send And so they've used the courts to block access Yeah, right of ways and everything else. It's it's it's getting access to the Telephone poles so that you can run lines easily so they restricted that or made it so that you That they had to work through a lot of paperwork to get access to these poles okay Interesting and not just one poll they would make every single poll on the route a separate work order scheduled separately like just like pain staking Teeth pulling slow process like every nail move with a separate work order Wow, well, that's interesting because I I know, you know, I live here in Verde Hills in Georgia power for the Kirkwood grid wanted to Wanted to bury our power lines, which we were Delighted about because we have tall trees that take out our power all the time but um And then in the but then we were sad because they said they're not going to take them on the poles because The other carriers have Their lines on the poles like, you know a a 2d and Comcast and it was And also it just takes them more time to get the agreement for all of them 3d better in the same in the same you know Cable or tube or whatever in the ground and um So I hadn't I guess I hadn't I really hadn't made as much attention all this stuff I would say but I mean, I knew it was going on like accg probably the county people are probably good Lobbyists for Well, I don't know. Were they I mean, how were they on this issue? Did they I think the main thing is local governments want to also be able to they want to It's it's their abilities What? Representative Evans to my direct knowledge. Um I know Comcast for instance in the johns Creek alfredo area Did a technical uh upgrade called splitting a node just simply to keep it with capacity But they thought nothing of rolling internet blackouts for multiple days at a time while they did this because I guess Presumably people don't work from home. So you can cut their internet in the middle of the day and there's no big deal Um huge deal But um, I am Secondhand aware from talking with people In city government aware with a matter That at one time there was a case where there was like good wi-fi in in alfredo Um, there was a volunteer who put it together And I don't want to over speak my knowledge, but it is no longer there and my understanding was is that was seen as Unfair governmental competition With the private provider and therefore improper, but there's no provider providing the equivalent of high quality Uh wi-fi in the entire city senator of alfredo. So it's just simply no longer a service there. So Some of that happens I think it's a lot of I mean, it's obviously a lot of business deals that are being done and so A lot of these deals in georgia get done by who curries favor with whom and and that type of thing I know in the uh the bills that um andy spoke about that Uh georgia municipal association and the advancing georgia counties were involved in that and they spoke very favorably And that's how it just slid right through. I also thought I mean you probably were there on the ground I couldn't go this year because of the uh pandemic, but I assume that a lot of this got Kind of slid through and greased As it as it were because everybody was already fighting about uh 202 and and what it became and that There was no chance At some point if you didn't want to have just a complete fight that you had to just go along and agree with things Because that's the way the votes looked when I looked at the record to see like who voted yay and who voted nay Because that happens I don't know. That's what I thought was happening. I because there was no way that you could object easily Yeah Yeah, like I said, so I'm not on those committees. So I didn't I'm not as intimately involved and certainly These lobbyists are not coming to me. I mean, I'm like, you know, a member of the minority party not on the committee and so I don't I don't even really know the You know the and uh, but I think Yeah, I mean A lot of deals still got done The the corporate lobbyists were at the legislature. They were definitely there this time maybe because advocacy groups and people weren't there as much but Yeah Somehow it's easier for those people to get there than those of us who are riding the subway Somehow what is that? Okay, well good. Well, um, I I do need to go but is there any last wrap up or any last anything or Before we head off or well, thank you for coming. I really I really appreciate it Good. I'm so glad to meet you all and uh, you know and scott. Thank you so much for the invitation Yeah, and I want to say Just uh echo my appreciation um For coming in tonight and uh sharing with us and I think you know I think that that one of the roles that I play is just to try to get people talking to each other. So Yeah, you know, I hope you know, I hope that that that uh That alone, you know, kind of makes makes a better world Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, one of the things that I'm every year. I try to do a little more as far as being proactive. Um so, uh uh I'm You know for a legislative agenda of my own So if there are things that you want me to advocate for, um, you know, scott, maybe you could uh Help me Help me with that. So I'll you could be a conduit for that Okay, good. Well, thank you so much. Um, and thank you for your good work and uh Uh, let me know if I can be helpful and I hope you'll get my sample on my website and um I mean sign up for my newsletters and get put my social media stuff in there too And I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you