Georgia lawmakers passed a controversial election law Monday night that would give the state Bureau of Investigation jurisdiction over election crimes and voter fraud.
Supporters of the right to vote have argued that the measure would intimidate voters and poll workers.
SB 441 passed the House and Senate by party-line votes just before midnight on the final day of the current legislative session. Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, is expected to sign it.
It came after a checkered turn of events in recent weeks, as lawmakers repeatedly grappled with various bills related to voting rights and electoral administration.
Some of the most controversial parts of an earlier version of the bill, which included the provision empowering the GBI and many other elements, were removed after opposition from state election officials. They argued that the legislation, HB 1464, proposed rules for handling ballots and outside donations that would make it harder for them to do their job.
However, Republicans on Monday night salvaged the most unpopular part of the original bill – which empowers the GBI, which normally works with local law enforcement in investigations of major crimes, to look for voter crimes and voter fraud – and inserted it into another bill they have passed.
The measure would give the agency the power, with the consent of the Attorney General, to subpoena documents and conduct any checks it deems appropriate.
Election law violations are monitored by the Elections Division in Secretary Brad Raffensperger’s office. Raffensperger, a Republican, has become a target of allies of former President Donald Trump after he refused to decount the 2020 election.
Other parts of HB 1464 were eliminated from the final bill, including limits on the number of voting machines counties must provide on Election Day, new rules on the provision of donations or grants to poll workers by outside groups, and restrictions on ballot handling elections and removing the requirement for ballots to be sealed two years after the election.
Voting rights advocates have still blasted passage of the bill, urging Kemp to veto it.
“The rushed passage of SB 441 tonight is the clearest sign yet that Georgia Republicans care more about mollifying conspiracy theorists and upholding the big lie than they care about upholding our democratic institutions,” Cianti Stewart said -Reid, the executive director of national voting rights organization Fair Fight Action, said in a statement.
“SB 441 would undermine our democracy by giving the Georgia Bureau of Investigations new sweeping powers, effectively greenlighting voter and election official intimidation. As a result, this legislation would further strain the process of conducting our elections, encouraging conspiracy theorists and threatening our campaign workers,” she added.
State Republicans last year passed what they call the Electoral Integrity Act, which, among other things, added ID requirements for mail-in voters and restricted the use of ballot boxes.
Kemp, who campaigned for the 2021 law, said in January that he didn’t see a need to change the electoral laws further after last year’s overhaul, but he and other senior Republicans later backed down from that position.
The Georgia proposals are part of a broader trend of voting restrictions being proposed in states with Republican-controlled legislatures.
