Judge scraps provisions in Georgia election law ahead of another big election year | News

ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia last month issued rulings blocking two provisions of the state’s election law, drafted in 2021 after historic Republican defeats.

US District Court Judge JP Boulee ruled against parts of the law that banned the provision of food and drink to those waiting in long voting lines and another that required voters to include their date of birth on return envelopes to write their postal ballots.

Boulee ruled that Georgia’s ban on giving food, drink or gifts applies within 150 feet of the polling station, but not 150 feet outside the polling station.

Testimony in the case suggested that the ordinance was based on the notion that voters would perceive voter exoneration as improper “campaign or political pressure” – which would appear to intimidate voters.

The plaintiffs, who included a coalition of voting rights groups like the Georgia NAACP, said the ban violated First Amendment rights. The constituency argued that the distribution of snacks and water will help relieve voters by waiting to vote.

Boulee recalled statements that during the early voting period for the December 2022 midterm runoff election, 21 of Fulton County’s 24 polling stations had queues of more than an hour; All 11 early voting locations in Gwinnett County reported wait times of at least 45 minutes. and wait times at 11 of the 16 early voting locations in DeKalb County exceeded 30 minutes.

In some places, the lines also extended past the 150-foot buffer.

“The plaintiffs have also provided expert evidence showing that waiting times are likely to be shorter in presidential election years compared to other election years,” the order reads.

Georgian Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger said he does not expect the temporary food and drink ban lockdown to have any major impact on polling operations, claiming that voter wait times in the 2022 election will be minimal.

“Due to the good job that both state and county election officials have done to ensure short lines for voters, this decision should have limited impact,” Raffensperger said. “I am grateful that the ban on giving anything of value to voters within 150 feet of the polling station remains in place.”

The Boulee ruling also prohibited counties from rejecting mail-in ballots that do not have the voter’s date of birth on the return envelope.

In some cases, the order points out that the indication of the date of birth on the outer cover of a mail-in ballot is unnecessary and has no material value.

“Voters must provide their social security number and their driver’s license or ID card number on the outer envelope. State defendants cannot adequately explain why these verification methods are insufficient to identify a voter,” Boulee said. “Given the evidence presented, the court is simply not satisfied that removing the date of birth requirement poses a risk of fraudulent ballots or jeopardizes electoral integrity.”

The data presented to the court showed a significant increase in rejections from voters due to non-compliance with the date of birth.

Raffensperger called Boulee’s opinion “misguided”.

“A federal judge ruled that using a voter’s date of birth to verify that they are actually the voter returning the ballot violates the Civil Rights Act,” Raffensperger said. “Verifying that an absent voter is actually the person who cast the ballot is one of the most difficult and important tasks expected of local election officials.”

Raffesnperger said he expects the decision to be appealed and that the state law will be upheld in the end.

The Election Integrity Act of 2021 remains largely unchanged

Other contested sections of the Republican-backed Election Integrity Act of 2021, which imposed restrictions on postal voting, were not addressed in Boulee’s ruling.

The tightened absentee voting measures came after Georgia officially became a contested state in the 2020 presidential election after President Joe Biden narrowly defeated then-President Donald Trump in that state.

During that election, Georgia voters broke mail-in ballot records — largely due to the pandemic — prompting unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud spearheaded by Trump and his allies.

After the election, Republicans in Georgia led the states that enacted new electoral laws.

The Election Integrity Act 2021 (SB 202) limits the period that a postal vote can be requested to a maximum of 11 days before the election, which was previously allowed up to the Friday before the election. The law also shortens the time districts can mail out ballots to four weeks before an election — three weeks later than previously.

A copy of an identity card is now also required to apply for and submit a postal vote.

Under SB 202, mail-in ballot boxes are no longer permitted to be located outside government buildings for 24-hour delivery, but must instead be located within early voting locations and accessible only during early voting hours. The law requires each county to have at least one mailbox bank, but no more than one for every 100,000 registered voters.

Unexcused postal voting continues in Georgia. In 2022, 6 percent of Georgians voted by mail.

Representatives from voter advocacy group Fair Fight said they plan to build a large-scale organizing program, reach voters with accurate and educational voting information, respond to problems at polling stations, support voter education and facilitate access efforts on college campuses.

Georgian Democrat Ruwa Romman, the first Palestinian-American lawmaker elected to Georgia’s House of Representatives, said Democrats’ grassroots efforts helped educate voters about the new law and helped increase voter turnout over the past year raise Democrats.

“We didn’t see the absolute disasters that we expected (with SB 202) because people over-organized all these bad policies,” she said. “Sometimes people see a positive result as a sign that these actions have not had a negative impact. But I hope they can also realize that this is actually a blueprint for what we need to do for 2024, and not just throwing a ton of money into the Post and publicity.”

According to the US Election Assistance Commission’s “Election Administration and Voting Survey 2022: Comprehensive Report,” Georgia ranks second nationwide for early voting, with 58% of Georgians voting in person before Election Day, compared to 48% in 2018.

Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University, said voters seem more motivated to vote in recent years as elections have become more competitive.

“Although I think the intent of those who voted (SB 202) was basically to make it harder for primarily Democrat-leaning groups, particularly African Americans and low-income voters, to participate in elections and set up unnecessary roadblocks,” said he. “I think it was an attempt to meet the kind of demands that were made by Trump and his allies.” Attacks by Trump and his allies on elections. And in Georgia in particular, the impact was ultimately quite small.”

In light of Fulton County’s recent indictments of Trump and three other Georgia GOP members for alleged election interference in 2020, the state’s GOP has increased its fundraising efforts to fight what the GO perceives as political attacks by the justice system designated.

“I think the condemnation[Trump]could certainly hurt, at least with a segment of the electorate, not necessarily his base, but with swing voters… (and) there’s a relatively small group of swing voters,” Abramowitz said. “And we’ve seen them reject Trump’s nominees in the midterm elections by and large, particularly in key states. … This suggests that something like this is likely to hurt Trump and other Republicans again, especially in 2024 ( candidates closely associated with Trump).

An AJC GOP presidential poll of 807 likely Republican primary voters in Georgia was conducted August 16-23 following the indictment against Trump in Fulton County.

The poll shows Trump still has a comfortable lead over his key challengers in Georgia. He is more than 40 points ahead of runner-up Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. About 31% of pollsters said Trump’s 13-count felony charges — including racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations violations of the law — were “not at all serious” in Fulton County, and nearly 13% said so to be “not too serious”.