Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed a nearly 100-page collective draft on Thursday that will make profound changes to electoral law that will affect voters, local election administrators and the board of directors that oversee the elections.
With only a few days to go before the end of the legislature, Republican lawmakers in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly passed Law SB 202 on a party line in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate.
Marc Elias, the lawyer who charged the Democrats with expanding options during the pandemic, had already promised “an immediate lawsuit” should Kemp sign the law.
Democrats and voting rights advocates busted the bill as a tactic to suppress voters and as a legislative “takeover” in response to former President Donald Trump and GOP allies who have been promoting false conspiracy theories for months about a stolen, fraudulent election. Republicans claim, however, that the bill aims to increase accessibility and streamline elections, ensure consistency and eliminate lack of confidence in the Georgian elections “on all sides of the political spectrum,” a term that Democrats deny.
Voters check in with election workers to cast their ballots at the Metropolitan Library in Atlanta on November 3, 2020.
The bill would extend early voting for primary and general elections, but not for runoff elections. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock secured their seats in the Senate – and the majority of Democrats – in January, breaking a decade-long series of Democratic defeats in national runoff elections.
In the case of primaries and general elections, the districts would have to vote in advance on both Saturdays and have the option to do so on the two Sundays that fall within the three-week period. Current law only stipulates one Saturday early voting. HB 531, another bulk election law pending final vote, originally banned early voting on Sunday but was amended after severe backlash from Democrats and the denomination, who labeled it a direct attack on black voters who participated in “Souls to the Polls “events took place after Sunday services.
However, this bill would shorten the period between elections and runoffs from nine weeks to four weeks, and while counties could start early voting “as soon as possible”, the bill only requires them Monday through Friday the week before The choice offered is choice – a much shorter mandate that does not include weekend days. To make matters worse, thanksgiving is the week when many are away. This bill also prohibits early voting on public holidays.
A provision of the bill would make it a crime for someone who is not a polling officer to have a voter standing in line to vote, to give food or drink, a practice known as “line warming” Except for self-service water stations. In the June 2020 primary, voters in Georgia’s largest metropolises – democratic strongholds with large minorities – waited in line for up to eight hours.
Another provision prohibits voting outside of the constituency until 5:00 p.m., and voters arriving after that time must sign an affidavit stating that they will not be able to vote in their assigned constituency in time. Currently, voters who appear in the wrong district can choose a preliminary ballot and their votes will be counted for races they were eligible to vote for, such as B. Nationwide races.
The bill would also eliminate the process of matching the signature to verify the postal vote, instead requiring voters to show their driver’s license or state ID number or a photocopy of other accepted ID if the voter lacks them.
Protesters wear chains while sitting in the Capitol building in Atlanta on March 8, 2021, contrary to House Bill 531, one of the bills the GOP-led lawmaker has been considering to restrict voting rights .
While a signature check in Georgia’s third largest county did not reveal any fraudulently cast ballot papers, that verification process has been the cause of much of the former president’s post-election anger. Top Republicans like the governor advocated moving from this “subjective” review process to an “objective” one.
Safe ballot boxes are not specifically sanctioned under current law and this bill would change that, but it would also introduce new restrictions on their use compared to voters in the 2020 cycle.
Unless there is a health emergency, Dropboxes can only be located within the preselected locations and are only accessible when these locations are open. This means that voters were unable to use them during the three days leading up to an election or on election day – the period during which a postal vote is returned by post is the riskiest as it has to arrive by 7:00 p.m. on election day to count .
Another provision would prohibit portable polling stations, such as the mobile voting buses that Fulton County used last cycle, except in emergencies where a polling station needs to be closed. In addition, groups of third-party providers are prohibited from sending requests for absentee ballots to voters who have already requested, received or voted for a postal vote. As a result, they are sanctioned by the state election committee.
The board of directors would also have its own overhaul and the general assembly would gain new power over elections.
The State Secretary would become a non-voting board member and would no longer chair it. Instead, the Republican-controlled General Assembly would elect a chairman by majority vote. Since the legislature already appoints two board members, under this bill they would appoint three out of five voting members to the board who monitor the elections and refer potential violations of the electoral law to the attorney general or the responsible district attorney.
A woman protests outside the Atlanta Capitol on March 8, 2021 against House Bill 531, which would impose voting restrictions.
The new authorities on the board include the option of suspending the district election officers and appointing temporary successors. However, the Board’s power to issue emergency rules would be limited as the House and Senate Judiciary Committees would have the power to suspend public health emergency rules, as is the case with the sanctioning of dropboxes in the 2020 cycle .
Two provisions of the bill would put a new burden on the district’s electoral departments.
While counties could begin processing postal ballot papers weeks in advance, on election night workers would no longer have the option to count the ballots until they were finished, with the exception of the few categories of ballot papers that were accepted by the Friday after the election can be.
The bill will also change as the counties need to complete certification, adding four days to the deadline – a change that will have the greatest impact on the major metro counties, which usually certify within or near the current deadline.
