New state Sen. Billy Hickman, a Statesboro accountant and Republican who succeeds the late Sen. Jack Hill in representing Senate District 4, expressed no opinion this week on proposals to change election procedures, such as requiring photo ID for mailed absentee ballots.

Interviewed by phone Wednesday afternoon, three days into his active service in the Georgia Senate, Hickman instead said voters’ confidence in the system needs to be bolstered but that he is gathering input on how to do that.

“I think we’ve all read about the priorities for the state. One of the priorities is looking at the election laws and maybe election reform, but we really haven’t gotten into that yet,” Hickman said.

He noted that Gov. Brian Kemp had talked about this topic Wednesday morning in a Georgia Chamber of Commerce virtual event, and that House Speaker David Ralston, R-House District 7, had also expressed his views. Kemp has endorsed an identification card requirement for mailed-ballot voting. This would replace the current signature-matching process. However, Kemp did not mention this as a priority Thursday morning during his hour-long State of the State Speech at the Capitol in Atlanta.

“I think what I’m going  to support is, we’ve got  to have from both  sides of the aisle, from Democrats and  Republicans, we’ve got to make  sure  that we bring  confidence back into the voting system,” Hickman  said the day before. “Right now there’s a lot of people without confidence in the system, and we’ve got to analyze it and see. If there are pitfalls, we’ve got to identify them, and of course right now, one side says there’s a lot of pitfalls, and the other side said there’s no pitfalls.”

He said he is “all for investigating” how to ensure voters confidence in the system and that another time it might be Democrats who express a lack of confidence.

“Our country was founded on democracy, and we’ve got to make sure that our people feel comfortable, satisfied that their vote counts, and I don’t think that’s the situation right now,” Hickman said.

Republican scrutiny of Georgia’s elections processes follows Democratic Party victories awarding the state’s Electoral College votes to President-elect Joe Biden and both its U.S. Senate seats to two Democrats. Outgoing Republican President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, against all evidence to the contrary, that he won in Georgia, after two statewide recounts, including one by done by hand, that confirmed Biden’s victory, and court dismissals of lawsuits  brought by Trump’s  campaign  attorneys.

After Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, confirmed the election results, Trump verbally attacked Raffensperger and even Kemp for certifying the results.

Awaiting input

When asked specifically whether he was expressing any opinion on changes in requirements for absentee voting, Hickman said, “I have not.”

“Now what I have done, I  have  reached out  to some people  to give me some input as to what they saw as the plusses and minuses in the voting system,” Hickman said, “and I’m waiting on some responses.”

The people whose input he is seeking include county election officials in the district.

Hickman’s committees

The first three days of the Georgia General Assembly session were taken up largely with administrative procedures, Hickman said, so he had little exposure to any proposed legislation as of Wednesday.

He had first been sworn in last August to complete the remainder of Hill’s final term, to the end of 2020. But after its regular session was suspended in March and concluded in June, the Legislature did not convene again for the remainder of the year. In fact, Hickman wasn’t even named to any committees until this week.

But he took the oath of office for a new, two-year term of his own Monday, along with all other members of the state Senate. The Senate Committee on Assignments, made up of Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and four leading senators, then made the committee assignments, and Hickman said he received his Tuesday.

As a freshman senator he will not chair any committees. But he was appointed secretary of the Senate Committee on Government Oversight.  This committee has broad oversight of government programs and policies. As recently as Dec. 3, the committee, including some different members at that time, held a hearing about election processes and heard from election officials.

Hickman has also been named a regular member of the Senate’s Finance Committee, its Higher Education Committee and its Retirement Committee.

“I’m very satisfied with the committee appointments, very happy with them,” Hickman said. “Finance, that’s my area of expertise, you know, that’s what I do for a living, taxes. Higher education is very appropriate because Georgia Southern (University), East Georgia (State College), Ogeechee Tech and Southeastern Tech are highly, highly important. … So are the state retirement and teacher retirement systems.”

COVID-19 cautions

Hickman said he also didn’t know at this point what further the state can do to speed distribution or administration of the COVID-19 vaccines. But age 67, he had received a dose of the vaccine last week and said he was pleased with the steps being taken at the Capitol to protect state lawmakers and staff members.

“We are being tested every Monday and every Thursday,” he said.  “It’s a Georgia Tech test, and if we test positive, they’ll notify us within 24 hours.”

So, members are to be tested before they leave for their hometowns on Friday and when they return to Atlanta on Monday.

Two Senate Republicans were out with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, he said.

Budget still priority

“I think  the number-one  item on the agenda right now is the budget, and  getting the budget passed, because we’ve got to have a balanced budget, as you well know, and this pandemic still scares everybody,” Hickman  said a little  later in the phone  call.

He noted that state revenues have recently been trending upward in comparison to the same months one year earlier.

Governor Kemp on Thursday devoted most of his State of the State speech to Georgia’s past and continuing efforts to combat the coronavirus and its economic effects.  After touting the positive revenue trends and his decision last year to allow Georgia businesses to reopen while those in many states remain closed, Kemp announced that he proposes no budget cuts this year.

In fact, he announced several new spending proposals, including a $1,000 one-time supplement to teachers and other public school employees for their service during the pandemic.