- Republican lawmakers in Georgia have unveiled a bill that would introduce new restrictions on the absence of voting rights.
- The proposed bill also ends early voting on Sundays, a day popular with black voters.
- Many state Republicans also insist on being added with photo ID rules and ballot restrictions.
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GOP lawmakers in the House of Representatives in Georgia on Thursday unveiled a comprehensive bill that would set new restrictions on absenteeism and end early voting on Sundays, a day when black churchgoers often go to the polls as part of the mood “Souls to the Polls” management.
The push for additional restrictions comes after President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in the state by about 12,000 votes last November, along with the double victories of the Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Senate Elections.
The proposed legislation, House Bill 531, would make photo identification mandatory to be absent, restrict the ballots to early polling stations and limit their use to voting walls, and restrict the window to request, among other things, changes.
The bill was heard in a hearing in the Legislative Committee, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting, about an hour after the text of the legislation was made public.
On the same day, a GOP legislative committee in the state Senate approved Senate Bill 67, which would provide a driver’s license number or a photocopy of voters’ identities when submitting a request for an absent ballot, and thus terminating the signature verification system that has been terminated. constantly criticized by Trump during his various attempts to reverse the election results.
Only a few days ago, top officials of the IDP, such as Lieutenant-General Geoff Duncan, could not provide concrete reasons as to why additional voting restrictions were necessary in the absence of widespread electoral fraud.
“I do not think we have identified a problem that we are trying to solve,” Duncan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think it’s an opportunity to ‘update and modernize voices in Georgia.’
Government Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, were excited by Trump for not thinking ahead of his election campaign; they support photo identification for moods without absence, but have not endorsed any specific bill, according to the Associated Press.
Georgia’s action follows the pattern of GOP – controlled lawmakers across the country seeking to impose additional restrictions following Trump’s re-election.
Democrats and suffrage groups were immediately critical of the Republican-backed bill.
“The public, people of color, have not had the opportunity to review their opinion or give their opinion. There is a lot of information in this that needs to be digested and looked at,” State Representative Rhonda Burnough said. “I think if we really want to work to restore the confidence that we need to work on improving everything based on proposals from the entire state of Georgia, not just us down here in the General Assembly.”
Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group started in 2018 by Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, is questioning the proposals, along with 27 other groups, who sent a joint letter to the top legislative Republicans declaring that the proposals would “have devastating consequences for the suffrage in Georgia.”
According to Fair Fight Action, 30% of Georgia voters are black voters, but by 2020 that number jumped to 36.7% on Sundays, the day Republicans want to eliminate as part of the early vote.
Nsé Ufot, founder of the New South super PAC, denounced the proposed measures as race-based voter repression.
“After an incredible loss in the general election and in the run-up to January, it is no wonder why Republics of Georgia rushed to impose restrictions on early, absent and weekend voting,” she said in a statement. “Republicans of Georgia have seen what happens when black voters are empowered and turn up at the ballot box, and now they are beginning a concerted effort to suppress the voices and voices of black Georgians.”