Georgia Republicans race to pass laws to restrict and challenge votes
In the final few days of this year’s Georgia assembly legislative session, Republican lawmakers raced to propose laws seeking to restrict voting access, and make it easier for citizens to challenge and subvert normal election processes.
Senate bill 221, house bill 422 and house bill 426 are just a few of the newly proposed election laws, which come after state Republicans, including the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, praised election officials for smooth elections in the past two years. They include measures to eradicate absentee ballot drop boxes, allow citizens to more easily challenge voter registrations – which Republican conspiracy theorists had already done with little backing evidence during the midterms – and even unseal ballots for review.
While some of the elements of these proposed laws offer expanded flexibility and resources for elections, including the popular bipartisan effort to eradicate runoff elections in the state, other aspects are grounded in unfounded claims and conspiracy theories surrounding mass election fraud stemming from the 2020 election.
Cynthia Battles, policy and engagement director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, a civil rights advocacy organization, recently raised her concerns at a hearing for house bill 426. “We continue relitigating the 2020 election, and the Georgia assembly is making legislation to try and appease some conspiracy theories,” she said.
SB221: ‘weaponizing voter challenges’
SB221, the most controversial law, allows voter eligibility challenges to proceed without adequate due diligence. Last year, the number of challenges statewide was nearly 100,000, yielding many unfounded claims from apparent election deniers, and clogging up the process for overwhelmed election officials during a critical time. Under SB221, voters could be purged from rolls simply based on allegations that include “a sworn statement by any person with relevant information”.
“We have seen a lot of organized and weaponized groups that have been weaponizing voter challenges for partisan gain,” said Isabel Otero, Georgia policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “That causes a lot of concern for us.”
In addition, the bill proposes using the National Change of Address (NCOA) database to determine a voter’s eligibility to vote in elections. However, according to Otero, this could directly violate federal law.
“That program is not very reliable as a tool for establishing the eligibility of a voter,” said Otero. “And there are federal laws that provide for safe harbor provisions when removing voters from the rolls using the NCOA data because the NCOA data is known to be inaccurate.”
The proposed changes under SB221 don’t end at voter eligibility. In a lastminute change during a senate committee on ethics meeting, Republican senators amended the proposed legislation to include language that completely eliminates the use of drop boxes throughout the state. This comes after previous legislation slashed the number of drop boxes available by more than half after the 2020 election when record numbers of voters returned their absentee ballots via drop boxes. There is no evidence that drop boxes increase voter fraud.
HB422: an assault on members of the election board Meanwhile, house bill 422, which is specific to Ware county, would allow the political party that receives the most votes in the preceding election – in this case, the Republican party – to unseat current election board members and appoint replacements of their choosing. If this law is passed, it will unseat the county’s three Black board of elections members. This is in direct contrast to other counties in the state that hold spaces for members of both parties.
Shawn Taylor, the current co-chair of the Ware county board of elections, is concerned that without safeguards in place, those nominated to the board will not properly represent the population of the county.
“The board currently has three Black members,” said Taylor. “We believe that this legislation is an assault on not only the members of the board but on the Black and brown members of the community.”
Fallon McClure, deputy director of the ACLU of Georgia, said HB422 is part of an alarming and growing pattern of legislation that allows biased political motivations to rule in local election boards.
“We must take partisanship out of elections administration and make it a fair process where everyone can have their voice heard,” said McClure.
Some south Georgia residents are concerned that even though this law currently only affects Ware county and does say that Democrats can submit nominations for the election boards, stark partisan divides make this just a formality that will give way to Democrats losing their voice.
“We are very concerned that the fair process will fail,” said former state house candidate Lethia Kittrell. “Our major concern is that this is already feeding down into other areas.”
HB426: removing a ‘check against partisanship’
Though the proposed law’s connection to election conspiracy theories is not as direct, another proposed bill has a much clearer connection. HB426 aims to remove the court seal on paper ballot verifications. As it stands, a lawsuit must be filed to access physical copies of election documentation. However, under HB426, only a request would need to be made for public access of ballots.
While the bill’s sponsor, Representative Shaw Blackmon, says it will improve transparency and help guarantee a truly “citizen-run election”, those opposed to the bill maintain that this is another tool that can disenfranchise voters and burden election officials.
“The court seal provides a check against partisanship,” said Phil Olaleye, a Democratic state representative. “I would not want to lower the barrier for potentially inundating our local officials and staff with an endless stream of requests coming from folks who are upset at the politics of the day.”
Anne Gray Herring of Common Cause Georgia echoed Olaleye’s sentiments. “Consider the real risks of an unmanageable quantity of review requests, including those that are made in bad faith and the limits of time and resources for county officials,” she said.
Controversial election legislation is nothing new for Georgia. Like the contentious SB202 in 2021 – which overhauled the state’s voting system – these newly proposed laws will significantly affect election officials and voters.
“Right now in our election system, we see an enormous amount of burnout and an enormous amount of turnover,” said Vasu Abhiraman of the ACLU of Georgia. “This should be an emergency to try to make the lives of local election officials easier.”
Voting advocates like Abhiraman agree that this type of sweeping legislation each session is a direct result of election lies and conspiracy theories.
“[This is] nothing more than continued political appeasement of the folks who have ripped so many lives apart and who have suppressed the vote in Georgia,” said Abhiraman.
“Underlying it is the perpetuation of a false narrative and an attempt to disenfranchise a subset of voters.”
The Georgia assembly is making legislation to try and appease some conspiracy theories
Cynthia Battles of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda