Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed off on an overhaul of Georgia\u2019s new voting laws that limit absentee voting Thursday with partisan support and an acknowledgement that courts will decide if new restrictions are legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following weeks of embittered debate and protests, Georgia Republicans hours earlier passed the expansive Senate Bill 202, coined the \u201cElection Integrity Act 2021,\u201d a plan they say will restore confidence in a broken election system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After signing the bill into law, Kemp referenced litigation that he anticipates is forthcoming over changes to early and absentee voting and a slew of other election<\/a> laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lawsuit<\/a> was quickly filed Thursday night on behalf of voting rights groups, the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund and Rise, that challenges the new voting restrictions, such as identification requirements to cast an absentee ballot and a ban on distributing water and snacks to voters waiting in line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democratic U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams and state House Minority Leader James Beverly said the party plans to legally challenge efforts they say will significantly disenfranchise many Georgians, predominantly minority voters, the disabled and seniors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans sold the legislation as making absentee drop boxes<\/a> permanent for the first time, adding new vote-by-mail ID requirements and an extra weekend voting day, and requiring more public notice when polling locations are changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kemp said the legislation is a significant step in reforming elections after an array of \u201calarming problems\u201d occurred in last year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kemp served as secretary of state when he won a closely contested 2018 gubernatorial election over Stacey Abrams, the founder of Fair Fight and a staunch critic of Senate Bill 202.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAccording to them, if you believe in protecting the security and sanctity of the ballot box, you\u2019re a \u2018Jim Crow in a suit and tie,\u2019\u201d Kemp said shortly after signing the legislation into law. I\u2019ve fought these partisan activists tooth-and-nail for over 10 years to keep our elections secure, accessible, and fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike before, I\u2019m sure they will threaten to boycott, sue, demonize and team up with their friends in the national media to call me everything in the book,\u201d Kemp<\/a> said. \u201cBut fighting for free and fair elections<\/a> is worth all of that and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The nearly 100-page bill is a combination of sweeping House and Senate bills and other more minor legislation introduced this session, as Republican lawmakers followed through on their pledge to revamp elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opponents called out the bill for restricting drop boxes to inside early voting locations except during a public health emergency, punishing people for casting out-of-precinct provisional ballots, and making it a crime to pass out water and snacks<\/a> while voters wait in lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden called the GOP voting proposals<\/a> moving through state houses like Georgia\u2019s \u201cun-American\u201d and \u201csick\u201d during a press conference Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over recent weeks, GOP leaders made some concessions that included not moving forward with banning Sunday voting as well as abandoning a proposal to end the no-excuse absentee law after a record 1.3 million Georgians voted absentee in the general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent months, Georgia became the subject of national controversy<\/a> for its flurry of proposed voting restrictions that follow baseless complaints of election irregularities peddled by former President Donald Trump and many supporters after losing the November election to now President Joe Biden by 12,000 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia\u2019s 2020 election cycle was the most secure in the state\u2019s history, according to GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Biden\u2019s victory was confirmed by machine and hand recount<\/a>s three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams, who also chairs the Georgia Democratic Party, said Thursday\u2019s passing of SB 202 signifies the importance of passing federal legislation this year protecting voters\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe played by their rules & WON,\u201d Williams wrote in a Tweet. \u201cNow Georgia Republicans<\/a> are changing the rules to make it harder to vote. Brian Kemp just signed a sweeping voter suppression<\/a> bill into law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere in the south we know how to fight Jim Crow,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see you in court AND in Congress with #HR1<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kemp\u2019s signing means many changes will impact how this year\u2019s municipal elections in Atlanta<\/a> and across the state will operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes moving up the absentee ballot request<\/a> deadline, requiring a state ID number to verify a person\u2019s identity instead of relying on the current absentee signature verification system, and giving poll watchers more access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican Sen. Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican, mentioned the absentee ballot process\u2019s validity as a chief concern that the legislation tackles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Cobb County signature audit of thousands of absentee ballot<\/a> signatures conducted by the GBI uncovered no fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe challenge is not in the fact that the votes were counted incorrectly; they were counted correctly. The challenge is whether the votes themselves were legitimate,\u201d said Burns, who chairs the Ethics Committee that held hearings on election bills. That\u2019s why you see in this bill, the absentee ballot process that ensures that the same identification requirements were an absentee ballot that you would have if you were to go to the polls to vote early or to vote Election<\/a> Day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another controversial new law replaces the secretary of state as chair of the State Election board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legislators would instead have the power to fill that post, giving the General Assembly the authority to appoint the majority of the state board that could take over underperforming local election boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat and attorney, said taxpayers will end up fronting expensive litigation costs and local counties will have to incur more expenses to run elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour local folks are going to have no idea what\u2019s going on, and not only that, but it\u2019s gonna cost, tons and tons of money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Georgia Recorder<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a network of news outlets supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed off on an overhaul of Georgia\u2019s new voting laws that limit absentee voting Thursday with partisan support and an acknowledgement that courts will decide if new restrictions are legal. Following weeks of embittered debate and protests, Georgia Republicans hours earlier passed the expansive Senate Bill 202, coined the \u201cElection Integrity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[9413,8514,9486,8474,9485],"class_list":["post-25210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","tag-absentee-voting","tag-election","tag-latest","tag-sun","tag-top","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}