Officials fear Georgia law could politicize voting operations
Election officials in conservative and liberal parts of Georgia say a new law allowing a Republican-controlled state agency to take over local voting operations could make the process too partisan.
Voting rights advocates have also warned that the provision, part of sweeping voting restrictions signed into law last week by Governor Brian Kemp, targets Democratic bastions such as Atlanta’s Fulton County that helped deliver the party control of the White House and Congress in recent elections.
The new law has mostly gained attention for its measures to strengthen absentee ballot identification requirements, curtail ballot drop box use and penalize members of the public who offer food and water to voters in line.
Months after former Republican President Donald Trump falsely claimed voter fraud in the 2020 elections, Republican backers say Georgia’s law is needed to restore confidence in election integrity. Civil rights groups have filed three lawsuits asserting the law illegally restricts voting rights, particularly for minority voters.
The legislation authorizes the Republican-majority legislature to appoint the state election board’s majority while demoting the elected secretary of state, Georgia’s top election official, to a nonvoting position.
It also allows the state board to remove local supervisors it deems derelict and replace them with individuals of its choosing.
That power has alarmed Democrats and civil rights organizations in light of Trump’s unprecedented pressure campaign to overturn the results in key Democratic counties.
‘DANGEROUS PATH’
Of the 55 that responded, officials in 11 counties of varying sizes and political leanings - Bartow, Macon-bibb, Cobb, Dekalb, Floyd, Heard, Jones, Murray, Paulding, Quitman and Tattnall - said the law gave the state too much control over election administration. Traditionally, locally appointed nonpartisan or bipartisan boards and judges oversee issues such as voter eligibility, polling place locations and vote certification.
“If we don’t rely on and hire smart people with institutional knowledge, and the process becomes politicized, then we go down a very dangerous path,” said Baoky Vu, a Republican on the Dekalb County elections board.
Election officials in 12 other counties did not express concerns with the law, while 32 officials declined to comment.
Georgia is among several battleground states, including Florida and Arizona, where Republican lawmakers have pushed new voting restrictions they say will curb voting fraud, despite research showing such instances are rare in the United States. Voting rights advocates say some efforts are intended to punish election officials who, like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, rebuffed Trump’s demand to change the election outcome.