A Georgia House panel on Tuesday pushed legislation banning local government officials from receiving donations directly from outside election administration organizations after allegations that millions of dollars were unfairly given to pro-Democracy counties during the 2020 election cycle .
Senate bill 222 was approved Tuesday by the House State and Local Government Subcommittee, with the support of Republican lawmakers, after a long debate over creating new criminal sanctions and requiring a county to return donations it received from a private organization to fund election administration.
The GOP-controlled state Senate approved the updated donation limits earlier this month along party lines. So if the House of Representatives also agrees, it can get to the governor’s desk.
If the law is passed, all private donations would have to be channeled through the State Secretariat and the State Electoral Board to local electoral authorities.
The law also makes it a felony, carrying up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine, for someone to break the law by soliciting private grants or receiving donations for elective surgery.
Democratic Rep. Phil Olaleye was unable to get enough votes to reduce the misdemeanor sentence with no jail time and a $1,000 fine.
The legislation also requires local governments to return any funds they receive from non-governmental organizations that have been received since the passage of the 2021 GOPs electoral law revision which sought to limit outside funding after millions poured into Georgia’s 2020 election to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A county elections official questioned the legality of retrospectively requiring an elections office like DeKalb County to repay the $2 million it received from a nonprofit earlier this year. The post was part of a five-year, $80 million collaboration with election officials and other experts across the country.
Dele Lowman Smith, chair of the DeKalb County Registration and Election Committee, said the county abides by state law, as it does with any type of grant that is then used for public purposes.
“All of this penalizes already harassed and underpaid, or in my case unpaid, election officials and volunteers,” she said. “I have to admit I’m offended to be told that we could risk being jailed for trying to minister to our county’s constituents when there are currently elected officials actively trying to change the results.” to reverse an election they faced not a single summons.”
A lawyer for the subcommittee said Tuesday the state could face legal trouble if it tries to require local governments to return funds that don’t specifically violate the 2021 election law. District commissions could receive grants and other donations related to elections and then distribute the funds for election administration.
“You are about to pass a law that we know will be legally challenged, which in my humble opinion is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Rep. Shea Roberts, a Sandy Springs Democrat.
Democrats have criticized Republican electoral law changes in 2021 for new rules they say burden local election officials with unfunded mandates.
Republicans complained Tuesday that liberal-leaning benefactors and organizations are funding districts in Metro-Atlanta and other Georgia communities that have voted Democrats in the past.
Members’ election observation group, VoterGa, referenced a report that found that 94% of the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life’s donations during the 2020 election cycle went to Democratic counties in Georgia, where a significant increase in voter turnout narrowed at the Democrats Joe Biden helped defeat ex-President Donald Trump in the presidential election.
Sylvania Republican Senator Max Burns, the sponsor of the donations legislation, said his bill intended to fill a gap where many counties in Georgia did not have an equal opportunity to bring in donations.
His bill still allows people to offer voting services without compensation for goods worth less than $200 and allows private donation from polling stations.
“In short, this bill is intended to ensure that Georgia elections are funded from lawfully appropriated state or local funds,” Burns said.
“What I want to suggest is that certain funding sources only made funds available to certain counties,” he said.
