Wow…

I am hearing astonishing rumors of capitulation on the ongoing state senate secret government from multiple Republicans who are apparently being fed the ridiculous concept that unrecorded votes anywhere in the state Capitol is somehow acceptable.

Make no mistake. Anyone and everyone presenting themselves as expert ‘grassroots activists’ who may be telling people that knowing exactly how your legislators vote is not important should be recognized for what they are: Establishment sell-outs who are passing on the absurd talking points put out by career politicians who regard We the People as ignorant, gullible adversaries.

–>The points I have heard bandied about are exactly the same points coming from the corrupt leaders of the senate who will do and say anything to keep their unrecorded vote rule in place. Let me make this clear. The Republican sell-outs peddling this betrayal are to the left of the AJC !

One nonsense talking point: “It’s only a floor amendment that has the unrecorded vote, so no big deal…” Floor amendments are changes to legislation after the public committee process.

Here is the scam: Let’s say the Chamber of Commerce orders up a bill that does “X” – but “X” is too radical to get through committee. The public may catch on. So the bill is written to go almost to “X”, passed out of committee and then when it gets to the floor changes ( floor amendments ) are made to get it to “X.” Only the senators can read these amendments. You cannot read them until it is all over,  if you even find out there was a change in language.

The default method of voting on floor amendments is an unrecorded hand vote that lasts only seconds. Senators sometimes hold their hand to their side so that gallery viewers cannot see them. Some senators will scurry under the gallery overhang to hide their vote. I have seen it many times. IF he is very quick, any senator can ask (make a motion) for a recorded vote. Then four other senators must very quickly raise their hands to clearly signal support. IF there are a total of five hands up and IF the President of the Senate gives an accurate count, then the votes on the amendment go on the board and into the permanent record. MOST FLOOR AMENDMENTS ARE DECIDED ON UNRECORDED VOTES because most senators would much rather stay in the cool crowd with the Chamber of Commerce and the other senators than risk alienation by doing the right thing.

Put a different way: They are much more fearful of the business donors than they are of you because they think you will believe anything they tell you.

Examples?

*The 2015 “Transportation Tax that was a nearly $1 billion a year increase could not have seen final passage without the unrecorded vote on a floor amendment. It fit the example above exactly. I watched from the gallery.

*In 2011, the internationally publicized illegal immigration bill, HB 87 passed the House with language requiring private employers to use E-Verify. Big Business was apoplectic. When HB 87 went to the senate floor, amendments were offered and passed that took out the E-Verify language – and were done on unrecorded votes. I watched from the gallery sitting with my friends Kay Godwin and Judy Craft. When we were spotted, panic broke out in the senate and the under-the-gallery move was on. The House put the E-Verify language back in later and it passed the senate the second time only because they knew we were on to the game.

* Reverse: A floor amendment was offered in 2015 to stop giving illegal aliens a drivers license in Georgia. It was defeated with an unrecorded vote while I watched. This, despite the fact that six senators told me later they raised their hands in favor of a machine counted vote. The entire event was over in about seven seconds. IF the GOP senators knew you would see a record of their vote, it would have passed!

Some more of the dishonest talking points being pushed:

“Recorded votes take too long…” The machine counted votes take one minute. The game is to hold all the “controversial” bills until the last few hours of the last few days and then funnel all of them through very quickly while amending them on the floor with unrecorded votes while you are home watching “the news.”

“You can watch the videos of the senate sessions to see how you senator voted.” Really? You need to be a detective with time on your hands to find out how your senator voted? This is what Republican activists are pushing? How many times have you watched the narrowly focused videos of any senate session in your life? It is impossible to see the entire floor even while you are in the gallery, much less from the limited view of the video camera. ( Click here to see a sample video – Georgia senate kills McKoon amendment to stop giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens and kills his request for a recorded vote.)

“Changing the unrecorded vote rule would enable the Democrats to get a recorded vote whenever they want…” Don’t look now, but there are already eighteen Dems in the senate. It only takes five to get the recorded vote. They can get a recorded vote anytime they want right now. Why do you suppose they don’t do it on every floor amendment now? BECAUSE THEY WORK FOR THE SAME PEOPLE THE REPUBLICANS DO – and it isn’t We the People!

A long time ago, I was told to give up on striving for good government because it is like banging your head against the wall and many lazy and unaware people indeed get the government they deserve. We’ll see. Thank God for Senator Josh McKoon.

D.A. King