Republican state legislators in Georgia on Monday introduced a series of bills, several of which could make it more difficult to vote in the state.
The proposals come after Democrats managed to turn the state blue in the core of the U.S. Senate last month and during the presidential race in November.
State republics have introduced eight pieces of legislation, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). The majority of these pieces would have a direct impact on the voting and registration of voters in the state, which had a good turnout among voters during the Senate’s run-off and presidential election.
Senate Bill 71, which counts among the bills, seeks to place further restrictions on who can vote per absentee. The bill contains a number of requirements that a voter must meet in order to make a ballot by mail, including that he is “absent from his or her environment during primary time”, with a physical disability that would prevent them to go to the polls or be at least 75 years old.
The bill also contains exemptions for voters with religious reasons that would prevent them from going to the polls and for election workers.
Bill 70 of the Senate would disqualify voters who cast a ballot outside of Georgia for a general election to a U.S. House of Representatives or senator, and then to the Peach State, ‘in the same election for such offices in this state in the same election. cycle. ”
Other bills were tabled by the Senate GOP on Monday that would prevent absentee ballots from being returned by the boxes, or allow only the foreign minister, election overseers, a board of registrars, candidates or their campaign committees to apply for absent ballots to distribute.
One bill, Senate Bill 69, would repeal the introduction of the “Motor Electoral Act” and prevent Georgia residents from automatically registering to vote or updating their voter information via applications to obtain a driver’s license or state identification card. or to change, unless the voter “confirms and specifically on such application indicates his or her desire to register to vote and sign the applicant for voter registration,” the legislation states.
Another bill would oblige the applicant for absent ballot papers, including their driving license number, their state identification card number or photocopies of their identification form. The bill contains exemptions for service members and foreigners.
The bill has 26 cosponsors, of which, according to GPB, were a handful of a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), which overturned the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
The voting legislation introduced on Monday has already begun to draw criticism from advocates for suffrage. It also comes days after another Republican in the state Senate, Jason Anavitarte, introduced a bill that requires voters to send copies of their photo ID to election officials twice before they can vote in absentia.
Seth Bringman, spokeswoman for Fair Fight, a national suffrage organization founded by former Democratic government candidate Georgia Stacey Abrams, addressed the legislation in a statement this week.
“This relentless set of bills from a radical Republican Senate leadership appears to be intended to appease conspiracy theorists like those who stormed the Capitol last month,” Bringman said.
‘The bills are unnecessary by the Republicans’ own assessments of the 2020 election, and are designed to restrict access and help Republicans lose the elections in Georgia. “Republicans wrote Georgia’s election laws, but they were humiliated on November 3 and January 5, so they want to silence Georgians, especially colored communities, who have used their power to change Georgia,” he continued.
Bringman said the suffrage organization and its allies “are prepared to fight every Republican attempt to withdraw suffrage.”
“Their desperation to hold on to power at the expense of Georgians’ constitutional right to vote has never been so clear,” he added.
Fair Fight was one of a number of voting rights groups that received high praise last year for their organizational efforts to help strengthen the Democrats during the U.S. run-off and the presidential election.
Abrams’ efforts to combat the oppression of voters in Georgia ahead of both elections were also mentioned when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this week.
On Monday, which was also the first day of Black History Month and the last day a person could be nominated for the award, Lars Haltbrekken, a politician from the Socialist Party in the Norwegian parliament, said Abrams’ work follow in dr. Martin Luther King Jr. …’s footprints in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights. ”