Augusta, GA
Ga. senators fight voting method that would avoid runoffs
ATLANTA, Ga. – Ranked-choice voting is barely present in Georgia, but Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and some state senators want to keep it from expanding.
Under the voting method used in some elections in other states, voters rank their choices in order. Lower-finishing candidates are then eliminated and their votes assigned to the surviving candidates until someone reaches a majority.
Supporters say the voting system could allow Georgia to avoid its system of runoff elections, required when a candidate doesn’t win.
They say runoffs usually have lower turnouts than earlier rounds of voting, and that voters dislike them, especially Georgia’s unusual requirement for a runoff when no candidate wins a majority in the general election. Most states declare the highest finisher the winner in a general election, even if they don’t win a runoff.
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But Georgia’s Senate Ethics Committee voted 8-1 Tuesday to ban the practice for all voters except for American citizens who vote absentee from abroad, sending the measure to full Senate for more debate. Since 2021, those citizens have cast a ranked-choice ballot because it’s impractical to send a runoff ballot abroad and get it back within the four-week window for a runoff.
Republican Sen. Randy Robertson of Cataula, the sponsor of Senate Bill 355, said the practice needs to be prohibited because voters will be confused, results will be delayed, and people who only vote for one candidate will often see their vote go uncounted. He held up a ranked choice ballot from another city and likened it to “the lottery card at Circle K where you pick your numbers.”
With the backing of the lieutenant governor, the measure is likely to pass the Senate floor, but its prospects are more uncertain in the House.
On the opposite side of the issue is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s elections chief. About a month ago, he called for lawmakers to get rid of general election runoffs, saying it’s time to “eliminate this outdated distraction.”
Robertson’s efforts were supported by testimony from multiple conservative groups nationwide. Their testimony focused in part on congressional elections in Alaska and Maine where Republicans had led the first round of voting but Democrats won after second-choice votes were redistributed.
“How could you rightfully have a congressional election where someone of that persuasion won or advanced when you had a state that went so far in the other direction in the presidential election?” Jordan Kittleson of the America First Policy Institute asked of the Alaska election. He called ranked-choice voting “a confusing, chaotic system whereby the person with the most votes doesn’t always win.”
But former state Rep. Scot Turner, a libertarian-leaning Republican, said voters aren’t confused by ranked-choice voting and argued Georgia’s current runoff system is costly, with fewer voters returning to cast additional ballots.
“At a minimum, we don’t know who our winner is for a month, and we have to pay for it, $75 million, and we have a half-million people silenced by that process,” Turner said.
He also questioned, if the method was so terrible, why it’s acceptable for soldiers overseas to use it.
“If ranked choice voting is so bad, why are you subjecting our men and women in uniform to something that is confusing and would disenfranchise them?” Turner asked.
Republican Wes Cantrell, another former state House member, called the opposition “spin and misinformation.”
He said that if Georgia voters had a second choice in 2020 that Donald Trump would have won Georgia’s presidential vote, and Republican David Perdue might have retained his U.S. Senate seat. He instead lost a runoff to Democrat Jon Ossoff.
“RCV is not a partisan issue,” Cantrell said. “It doesn’t benefit Democrats or Republicans. It represents taxpayers and voters.”
He said that voters hate runoffs. “The process is flawed and it’s because we wear our voters out,” Cantrell said.
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
AUGUSTA, GA (WJBF)- The Augusta men’s basketball team is gearing up to host cross-town rival the USC Aiken Pacers Wednesday night in a Peach Belt Conference matchup.
The Jags held their last full day of practice at Christenberry Fieldhouse before they take the court against the Pacers. Augusta holds a 54-33 lead in the overall series, but the Pacers swept the Jags last season.
Both teams this year off to a slower start in conference play, with just five wins combined between the two programs. So, this matchup will serve as a strong evaluation on where the teams are at now, and what they can improve on moving forward.
“We started the season off a little slow. But each game you can see the progress that we’re making in practice, the progress that we’re making. As a team we’re starting to click and understand what it takes,” said AU point guard Kyndon Wilburg.
“Rebounding the basketball is probably the most important thing, getting back in transition. This would be a huge win for us, coming off a tough loss from lander. I think it would be a great way to kick start what we’re about to do,” Wilburg said.
Tip-off for the men is set for 7:30 p.m. at Christenberry Fieldhouse.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The Augusta Museum of History is launching a new America’s 250th exhibit that showcases the area’s Revolutionary War, Civil War and modern-day connections.
“When people think of the Revolutionary War, a lot of times they think of up north, you know, New England and Paul Revere, but there’s just as much history down here,” Krystal Lyons, head of education, said.
The exhibit is a chronological journey through Augusta’s past
The exhibit moves chronologically through Augusta’s history, telling specific stories through objects that have not been displayed before or in a long time.
The display starts with Native Americans and the Stallings Island community, progresses through the Revolutionary period and into the Civil War and antebellum period before arriving at the modern day.
Visitors should plan multiple visits to see all the historical stories the artifacts tell, as the exhibit will change every three months.
“These stories that each of these artifacts has, it has a little story that we can connect to people today, so it might feel like a long time ago, 250 years ago, but there’s a lot of things that we do that are just the same today as they were 250 years ago.”
You can also visit the Augusta Museum of History’s social media pages as they deep dive into one artifact per week throughout the year.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Video game retailer GameStop is reportedly closing 16 stores in Georgia, including one Augusta location, as part of its “comprehensive store portfolio optimization.”
The store in Augusta is located in the Southpointe Plaza at 3209 Deans Bridge Road.
The retailer announced in an SEC filing that it plans to close “a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025.”
While an official list is not available, emails sent to customers and notices sent to employees indicate 16 stores in Georgia are on the chopping block.
All Georgia locations closing include:
- North Point Mall, 1198 North Point Circle, Alpharetta
- Lenox Square Mall, 3393 Peachtree Rd. NE Suite 2027, Atlanta
- Howell Mill, 1801 Howell Mill Rd. NW, Atlanta
- Southpointe Plaza, 3209 Deans Bridge Rd., Augusta
- Shops @ Main Street, 455 Cherokee Pl., Cartersville
- Chamblee Village, 1841 Chamblee-Tucker Rd., Chamblee
- Peachtree Mall, 3131 Manchester Expwy. #34B, Columbus
- Cumming Marketplace, 1060 Market Place Blvd., Cumming
- Dublin Commons, 2421 Hwy. 80 W, Dublin
- Hartwell Station, 115 Walmart Dr., Hartwell
- 4959 Bill Gardner Pkwy., Locust Grove
- McDonough Square, 1144 Hwy. 20-81, McDonough
- Pharrs Village, 1830 Scenic Hwy. N, Snellville
- Stone Mountain Festival, 1825 Rockbridge Rd., Stone Mountain
- Cofer Crossing, 4363 Lawrenceville Hwy., Tucker
GameStop’s board of directors recently approved $35 billion in performance-based stock options for CEO Ryan Cohen, should the company’s market cap hit $100 billion. The company’s market cap is $9.3 billion.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
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