The Georgia state Senate passed a bill that would eliminate no-excuse absentee voting in the Peach State, a hot-button issue for the GOP following the presidential election.
The bill, S.B. 241, passed by a vote of 29-20 on Monday afternoon. Under the proposed legislation, the only voters who are eligible to vote absentee are those who are 65 years old or older, absent from the precinct, observing a religious celebration, or providing constant care for someone else. The bill is being touted by the Republican majority, who say they seek to improve voter security and confidence, while their Democratic opponents argue that the legislation will make it harder for people to vote, specifically people of color.
HOTLY CONTESTED VOTING RESTRICTION BILL HEADS TO STATE SENATE
The measure aims to overturn a 2005 Republican-backed law allowing no-excuse absentee voting. It will now go to the Georgia House of Representatives, where the bill is expected to pass. Republican state officials Gov. Brian Kemp, House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan have expressed support for moderate voting-related changes, including adding security measures to voting by mail, but they have not backed more extreme proposals, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.
The Georgia Legislature is currently considering more than a dozen different pieces of election-related legislation. If passed, the bills would require voter ID, block voters from being automatically registered to vote when obtaining their driver’s licenses, end no-excuse absentee voting, give poll watchers more access to vote tallying, set a deadline to request an absentee ballot to 11 days before Election Day, and restrict drop boxes and early voting on Sundays, among other provisions.
The topic of election security and potential reformation has become a major political issue at both the state and federal level in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. As of last month, 43 states have carried over, prefiled, or introduced a total of 253 bills that would restrict voting access, in direct contrast to 704 bills with provisions that would expand voting rights in a different set of 43 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal-leaning law and policy institute.
President Biden won the Peach State’s 16 Electoral College votes after two recounts, and Democratic challengers ousted both incumbent Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, in runoff races in January. During the period between Biden’s November victory and the January runoffs that Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won, former President Donald Trump, his campaign, and many of his allies alleged widespread voter fraud through various means, claims that were roundly rejected in court, maintaining that the election in Georgia was rigged against Trump.
Trump is now under criminal investigation by Georgia prosecutors into alleged efforts by Trump to overturn the election, including a focus on a call in which the former president urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” enough votes that would hand him victory in the state.
As a result of some Trump allies’ claims of voter fraud, Georgia Republicans have argued the new measures are important for restoring public confidence in election integrity.
“Our goal in [House Bill 531] is to make sure that Georgia’s election results get back quickly and accurately,” state Rep. Barry Fleming said upon the passage of HB 531, a measure aimed to shore up election integrity, last Monday. “The way we begin to restore confidence in our voting system is bypassing this bill. There are many commonsense measures here to begin that process.”
Democrats opposed these voting reform measures, claiming the proposed legislation is only a result of the GOP’s recent high-profile losses in the state.
“Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly are trying to change the rules of the election here in Georgia, rules that you wrote, because you were handed defeat,” Georgia state Rep. Kimberly Alexander, a Democrat from Hiram, said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You know that your only chance of winning future elections is to prevent Georgians from having their votes counted and their voices heard.”
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At the federal level, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its own election reform bill, H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” last week. The bill would require states to use automatic voter registration for federal elections and allow same-day voter registration, among other measures. It will face an uphill battle in the evenly divided Senate.
