Reader praises Lesley Francis column
Hi Leslie, I moved to GA from CT in Dec. & have been reading you in the Bryan County News. After my 1st visit to London in Aug., I was struck by your column on the plot of land near Runnymeade that was to honor our President Kennedy. British relatives we met up with there had JUST told us about this acre of land & we had never heard about it before. So, I was very excited to read it & sent it on to the cousins. Now, I just read your column on Queen and also found it very interesting... being in my 70’s, I am very familiar with their music & enjoyed your thoughts.
I look forward to any future writings - keep up the great work!
Marlene Calgi, Richmond Hill,
GA Local columnist bids Jeff Whitten farewell
Just a note to say “Thank you!” to (now) former editor, writer, humorist and columnist Jeff Whitten, for his many years of service to our communities, both in Bryan and in Liberty Counties. He makes light of his contributions, but he has been a dedicated member of the journalism team in both counties for many years.
As Tom Hand said in a recent column, his own stint as a columnist began when he submitted a “Letter to the Editor” of this publication, and Jeff invited him to turn it into a column; and he is still writing. The same thing happened to me.
I first began writing columns for Jeff a dozen or so years ago, when he was Editor of the Coastal Courier in Hinesville; and more recently am on my second series of columns for the Bryan County News, which he has been gracious enough to print. I haven’t yet heard of anyone cancelling their subscriptions on account of anything I’ve written; so Jeff has been happy to continue to keep getting “free copy” for his paper. I enjoy writing, and am happy to do so.
I wish Jeff well as he figures out what the next chapter holds for him; and am confident that the Bryan County News is in good hands with his successor. You provide an invaluable service to our county, and I hope it continues for many years.
Rafe Semmes, Midway GA
Resident shares his concerns about voting machines
According to Official Code of Georgia: 21-2-300, section 2: “Equipment used for casting votes... shall be the same in each county...
Provided, however that such electronic ballot markers shall produce paper ballots which are marked with the electors choices in a format readable by the elector.
On October 11, 2020 in the U.S. District Court, Curling v. Raffenspurger, Judge Amy Totenberg confirmed that our current voting system is illegal since it does not produce a ballot marked with the elector’s choices in a human readable format. Judge Amy Totenberg clearly stated in her decision that “QR codes are not readable by the voters” thus are illegal.
The Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffenspurger, was informed by the Judge that our Voting Systems were not producing lawful ballots... but he has done nothing to fix the problem.
Bryan County voters, perhaps you noticed that at the bottom of our ballots is a QR code.
The Dominion Ballot Scanners don’t read the names or the circles filled in on the upper part of the ballot. The Scanners read the QR code... meaning that Voters don’t really know who their vote is going for, because no human I know can read a QR code!
Since discovering this breach of the law this summer, we have shared this information with Bryan County Commissioners and the Richmond Hill City Council members and asked them to remedy this serious situation, but no action has been taken.
So as it currently stands, Bryan County is planning on holding an election on November 7, 2023 with ballots that are not in compliance with the Official Code of Georgia: 21-2-300.
If you are concerned about this as much as we are, please contact your County Commissioners and ask them to fix this by problem by giving us “Hand marked Paper Ballots that are counted by Hand.” For that is the “Gold Standard” of safe and secure elections.
M. Thomas Seaman, Richmond Hill, GA