New Ga. elections rules could impact 2024 presidential race

ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers on Thursday approved new rules for challenging voters and qualifying for the state’s presidential ballot that could impact the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state.

Senate Bill 189 passed the House by a vote of 101 to 73 and the Senate by a vote of 33-22, sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto.

Republicans in Georgia have repeatedly floated election changes in the wake of false claims by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans that he lost Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020 because of fraud.

The bill would grant access to Georgia’s ballot to any political party that has qualified for the presidential ballot in at least 20 states or territories. The change could be a boost to independent candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose campaign has spooked Democrats worried it could draw support away from President Joe Biden.

The bill also spells out what constitutes “probable cause” for upholding challenges to voter eligibility, which could lead to voters being removed from the rolls. Probable cause would exist if someone is dead, has voted or registered to vote in a different jurisdiction, has registered for a homestead exemption on their property taxes in a different jurisdiction or is registered at a nonresidential address.

“We define probable cause very simply,” said Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican.

Democrats slammed the provision, saying it would enable more baseless attacks on voters that would overwhelm election administrators and disenfranchise people. More than 100,000 voters have been challenged in recent years by Republican activists who say they are rooting out fraudulent registrations, with thousands of challenges submitted at a time in some large Georgia counties.