Georgia GOP Didn't Like How Brown and Black People Voted-- So They Are Going to Shut Them Out

This week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp—who just three years ago was elected amid a widely-derided effort to suppress voting as well as a well-documented abuse of power while overseeing his own election as secretary of state— ushered in the most sweeping disenfranchisement of black and brown voters seen in this country since the enactment of Jim Crow laws over 100 years ago.

 

 

The bill was rushed through both GOP-controlled houses of the Georgia legislature and in a move seemingly cloaked in shame, Kemp (flanked by six other white men) obliviously signed into law the most onerous restrictions on voting rights seen since Trump was defeated in one of the most fairly-conducted and interference-free presidential elections conducted this century. 

Without any sense of shame, the seven white men oversaw the enactment of the new voting restrictions underneath a painting of a notorious slave plantation, while black state Rep. Park Cannon was arrested outside his office on felony charges while knocking on the door to witness the signing herself.

Sparking widespread condemnation and numerous comparisons to Jim Crow by Democrats and voting advocates, the law's passage also prompted Black voting advocates to immediately file a federal lawsuit challenging many of its provisions.

he GOP's new law excluded some of the most extreme proposals to restrict voting such as measures to eliminate automatic voter registration and the ability of voters under age 65 to vote by mail without an excuse, and it includes a few provisions that could expand voting access, but a far larger number of measures restrict access to voting and give Republicans greater partisan control over election administration itself. The new law includes provisions that:

• Require voter ID for requesting and returning an absentee ballot by mandating that voters include their ID number or a photocopy—officials would use the ID number to verify voters' identities, which some election officials argued was less secure than the current signature-verification process;
• Set the deadline for requesting absentee ballots at 11 days before Election Day instead of three while also preventing counties from mailing out ballots until four weeks before Election Day, which risks some voters not getting their ballots on time;
• Allow online absentee ballot requests;
• Ban election officials from mailing out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms to all voters after Raffensperger did so in the 2020 primary;
• Penalize third-party groups that send unsolicited absentee ballot requests if doing so includes any voters who already requested a ballot;
• Significantly limit absentee ballot drop boxes by requiring they be located inside of early voting locations, making them only available during regular business hours, and capping the number of drop boxes at whichever is the fewer of one per every 100,000 active registered voters or one per early voting site in each county;
• Allow election officials to start preparing absentee ballots for counting two weeks before Election Day to ensure a timely count;
• Standardize early voting days and hours across counties during primaries and general elections by expanding availability in many small rural counties that are heavily white and conservative but limiting availability in larger counties that are diverse and Democratic-leaning;
• Sharply reducing early voting in general election runoffs by cutting the two weeks of runoff early voting down to just five business days and no weekends; this will particularly affect Black voters, who are disproportionately likely to use weekend voting days;
• Ban mobile voting buses that are currently allowed for early voting;
• Require large polling places servicing precincts with more than 2,000 registered voters that experience wait times of longer than an hour to add more voting machines or be split into multiple sites; this provision doesn't appear to require similar action to relieve long lines in smaller precincts;
• Ban people other than poll workers from giving food and water to voters waiting in line;
• Disqualify voters from voting in the wrong polling place but in the right jurisdiction unless they show up specifically after 5 PM on Election Day and sign a statement saying they couldn't make it to their assigned precinct in time;
• Allow Georgians to initiate an unlimited number of challengers to voters' eligibility, which a right-wing voter suppression group unsuccessfully tried to do to tens of thousands of voters last year, and give challenged voters very little time to defend themselves;
• Limit the secretary of state's powers by removing him from chairing the state Board of Elections and replacing him with a legislative appointee as chair, additionally enabling GOP lawmakers to take greater control over local election boards on the pretext that they are "underperforming;"
• Bar local election officials from directly receiving grant funding from private philanthropic organizations to help pay for election administration after many counties did so in 2020;
• Shorten the runoff period for federal general elections from nine weeks to four weeks and adopt instant-runoff voting for military and overseas voters to ensure that doing so doesn't conflict with federal law that requires absentee ballots be sent to overseas voters no later than 45 days before any federal election date; and
• Replace all-party primaries in special elections with regular party primaries.
  

 More than ever, it should be Biden's top priority to end the filibuster and use whatever means necessary to pass H.R. 1 (the For the People Act) and ensure that all Americans have equal access to the ballot box.