Georgia governor signs election bill amid outcry
Georgia Gov. Brian
Kemp drew protests Thursday as he signed into law a sweeping Republicansponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.
Democrats and voting rights groups say the law will disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color. It is part of a wave of GOP-backed election bills introduced in states around the nation after former President Donald Trump stoked claims that fraud led to his 2020 election defeat.
As Kemp was delivering remarks shortly after signing the bill, he was interrupted by a commotion inside his ceremonial office and asked an aide “what’s the problem” before a livestream of the event cut out. Just outside Kemp’s office were about 10 protestors, including Democratic state Reps. Park Cannon and Erica Thomas, who are both Black. Cannon was arrested by Capicutting tol police after knocking on the door of the governor’s office during his remarks.
The Republican changes to voting laws in Georgia follow record-breaking turnout that led to Democratic victories in the presidential contest and two
U.S. Senate runoffs in the once reliably red state.
Kemp signed the bill less than two hours after it received final passage in the Georgia General Assembly. The bill passed the state House 100-75 earlier Thursday, before the state Senate quickly agreed to House changes 34-20. Republicans in the legislature were in support, while Democrats were opposed.
Among highlights, the law requires a photo ID in order to vote absentee by mail, after more than 1.3 million Georgia voters used that option during the pandemic. It also cuts the time people have to request an absentee ballot and limits where ballot drop boxes can be placed and when they can be accessed. And it also makes it a crime for third-party groups to hand out food and water to voters standing in line.
Republican Rep. Jan Jones said the provisions
the time people have to request an absentee ballot are meant to “increase the likelihood of a voter’s vote being cast successfully,” after concerns were raised in 2020 about mail ballots not being received by counties in time to be counted.
One of the biggest changes gives the GOPcontrolled legislature more control over election administration. The law replaces the elected secretary of state as the chairman of the state election board with a new appointee of the legislature. It also allows the board to replace county election officials deemed to be underperforming.
The law does not contain some of the more contentious proposals floated by Republicans earlier in the session, including limits on early voting on Sundays, a popular day for Black churchgoers to vote in “souls to the polls” events. It instead mandates two Saturdays of early voting ahead of general elections, when only one had been mandatory, and leave two Sundays as optional.