Absentee, Sunday voting targeted in new bill
ATLANTA — Critics of a sweeping Georgia bill that would impose new voting restrictions told Republican representatives Friday to back off absentee voting ID requirements, drop box limits and a ban on early voting on Sundays.
Each witness who testified Friday in a House committee hearing opposed the 48-page legislation, saying it would create burdens for voters and prevent them from casting ballots. But the bill appeared to have the support of the committee’s Republican majority, making it likely to advance.
Voting rights advocates called the bill “devastating” and a “horror show.”
The bill reaches beyond absentee voting, also imposing restrictions on in-person voting. Sunday voting would be canceled, a blow to Black churches that host “Souls to the Polls” get-out-the-vote events.
“The lie is that we have collusion, corruption and deceit,” said Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta NAACP. “These legislations appear to be another way to discourage participation by the claim that there are problems.”
Republican legislators said the proposals would boost voter confidence through new voting laws after November’s presidential election.
Georgia election officials have said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, but state Rep. Bonnie Rich said legislators need to prevent the possibility of wrongdoing.
“If there is a certain amount of voter fraud, that means that someone who voted in the election who was not a legal voter basically disenfranchised me when they voted,” said Rich, a Republican from Suwanee.
The legislation, House Bill 531, is the most far-reaching elections bill introduced in the Georgia General Assembly this year, though several other measures have advanced through their first committees.
It incorporates initiatives such as requiring a voter to submit either a driver’s license number, state ID number or copy of photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot. The bill also sets an absentee ballot request deadline 11 days before election day.
Absentee ballot drop boxes could only be located inside in-person early voting sites during working hours.
Provisional ballots cast by voters in the wrong precinct would be disqualified altogether. Currently, votes for all eligible candidates are counted.
Giving food and drinks for voters waiting in line would be made illegal.
State Rep. Barry Fleming, the chairman of the Election Integrity Committee, said the bills would address the perception among voters that Georgia’s election wasn’t trustworthy after Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Recounts and audits of election results repeatedly verified the results of the close presidential election, which was decided by fewer than 12,000 votes. State election officials said it’s false to suggest there were many ineligible voters. In addition, an investigation of voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in Cobb County didn’t find a single fraudulent vote.
Democrats on the committee said the vast bill would replace voting laws that they believe worked well, leading to record turnout with over 5 million votes cast in Georgia.
Besides the bill debated Friday, six other election bills have passed Senate and House election committees. Five more have cleared subcommittees.
None is as encompassing as the bill under consideration in the Election Integrity Committee, potentially affecting every absentee voter and tens of thousands of in-person voters.
Over 1.3 million people voted absentee in the November presidential election, and a combined 71,000 people voted at early voting locations on two Sundays in October.
The House Election Integrity Committee could vote on the bill Monday, and then it could reach a vote in the full Georgia House of Representatives later next week.