BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp started his tour of Southeast Georgia in Jekyll Island, touting the hospitality industry's ability to bounce back in the pandemic.
At the end of his tour, Kemp denied that new legislation he signed into law is voter suppression, but voting rights groups disagree.
Kemp visited the Waycross COVID-19 mass vaccination site and met with staff giving the shots.
Kemp and his daughter got their COVID-19 vaccines at the Ware County Health Department.
“This is a medical miracle and it will end the pandemic,” Kemp said at a press conference discussing tourism in Jekyll Island
Kristen Higgs runs the site and says the site was averaging dozens of doses a day, but they’re ending this week on a high.
“Originally we were having 40 to 60 people a day, but today we should hit 300, over the past few days its increased two-fold pretty much every day,” Higgs said.
Kemp touted the state’s ease of restrictions during the pandemic, and opened the door to dropping additional COVID-19 restrictions.
He says the key to ending the pandemic is for people to get vaccinated, but acknowledged that many are hesitant to get the vaccine across the state.
Kemp says the state ranks 49 out of 50 per capita in the number of doses for the population, but says the state has capabilities to do additional shots.
He says while eligibility has increased—there is less vaccine demand in southern parts of the state.
“We’re really starting to make a dent with increased demand because of the open eligibility, but we’re sending doses where the demand is,” Gov. Kemp said.
“If someone’s not using doses, we’re not going to send them anymore,” Kemp added.
Waycross mayor Michael-Angelo James says the goal is to continue educating people about the vaccine’s safety.
“The experience they’ve had in times past with different types of vaccines. Especially in many cases when people are hesitant its because of lack of education as well,” Mayor James said.
At the Waycross vaccine site, Kemp briefly discussed the new bill he signed into law saying it provides additional Georgia voting security. Voting rights groups disagree.
Cliff Albright is co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter.
And calls the signing of Senate Bill 202 a huge attack on voting rights after a historic election.
“There was no fraud, there were no irregularities, this was nothing but a power grab and an attempt to take us back to the Jim Crow era, which is why we call it Jim Crow 2.0,” Albright said.
The bill requires new voter ID requirements—and gives the state power to take over local election boards.
It also prevents volunteers from handing out food and water to voters waiting in line.
Kemp denies it takes away voting rights—and slammed a state representative who tried to stop the signing of the bill.
“it continues to, I think, will allow Georgia to have secure, accessible, fair elections in Georgia. As far as Representative [Park] Cannon, you’d have to ask the Georgia Department of Public Safety about what happened there. It’s unfortunate a sitting state representative would kick and stomp a Georgia State Patrol officer,” Kemp said.
Albright says he is hoping that House Resolution 1 will undo what he says Kemp did.
Albright says his group and others will be filing lawsuits over the legislation.