Some of these Republicans are trying to convince Americans that baseball officials are not only wrong, but also hypocritical. On television and on social media, they have argued or strongly suggested that the new Georgia law is not stricter than Colorado’s election law.
It’s not even close to true.
Colorado sends a mail ballot to every active registered voter. Because of these policies and others outlined below, experts believe that Colorado is one of the states that makes it easier to vote; David Becker, executive director of the Center for Electoral Innovation and Research, a non-profit organization, said it was “most likely at the very top of the list of easiest countries to vote for.”
There is even debate among experts as to where exactly Georgia ranks – but it is far more restrictive than Colorado. The Republican attempts to portray Colorado as the equivalent of Georgia were either untrue or did not have it necessary.
Yet they quickly invaded the right-wing media ecosystem. Network reporter Peter Doocy, who spoke to Fox News officials through others, on Tuesday asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki if the White House was concerned that Major League Baseball was moving the game to a state ‘where voting rights are much like Georgia’s. ‘ Doocy’s premise was simply inaccurate.
Here’s a look at the many issues with some of the Republican claims about Colorado and Georgia.
Colorado has far fewer personal voters
Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, Sen.
Tim Scott, and several other Republicans pointed out that Georgia’s new law requires 17 days of early voting, while Colorado’s early voting begins 15 days before election day.
This is true – but leaves out a critical context: Colorado, unlike Georgia, sends a mail ballot to every active registered voter. And the vast majority of Colorado voters prefer to vote by mail rather than in a ballot box.
In the 2020 general election, 94% of the ballots in Colorado were postal votes, the Secretary of State said. In the 2016 general election, it was 93%.
In Georgia, where voters must cast a ballot if they want one, about 26% of the vote in the 2020 general election was in favor.
The new Georgia legislation also prohibits the state from moving toward Colorado-style elections. By law, ballot papers can only be provided at a specific request of a voter. And it bans the Secretary of State and other government officials from even sending absentee ballot papers to every active registered voter, as Raffensperger, a Republican, did for the 2020 primary because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Colorado offers more access on election day
Scott
assert in his tweet that Atlanta “has more daytime rights than CO.”
When he talked about the rights of election day, he was wrong.
Colorado keeps its polls open until election night. Georgia did the same in 2020 – but now, under its new law, it cannot do so in the future. Under the new law, dropouts can only be available during the early voting period, which closes on Friday before election day.
In addition, Colorado allows people to register on election day and then vote. In Georgia, the deadline for registration is the fifth Monday before election day.
Colorado generally offers more access to the drop box
It’s not just Election Day during which Colorado offers greater access to the box office than Georgia offers.
Under Georgia’s new legislation, each country must have at least one drop box. But the law also says that each province cannot have more than one additional subject per early voting website or per 100,000 active registered voters, whichever is less.
This provision would mean that large Georgia counties have far fewer subjects than large Colorado counties. Fulton County in Atlanta, with a population of more than 1 million in 2019, says it should go from eight subjects to eight in the November election in the future. Denver, with a population of approximately 727,000 residents in 2019, also had 38 subjects in November and this is not forced to a sharp reduction.
In fact, the most populous counties in Colorado must have at least one drop box per 12,500 active voters. (The requirements are gradually getting smaller for provinces of smaller sizes.) By 2020, Denver should have at least 35 subjects.
That’s not all. Georgia law requires that subjects be moved within polling stations or early polling stations (except during emergencies declared by the governor), where it can only be available during the early voting hours – no more than 7 to 19 hours. stays available 24 hours a day outdoors.
Colorado has a lower requirement for voter identification
Some Republicans have erroneously hinted that Colorado’s voter identification requirement is equivalent to Georgia. Others stood up and wrongly claimed that Colorado especially needed photo identification.
In one viral tweet that was removed after we
actually checked on Twitter, Greg Price of the right-wing website The Daily Caller, claimed that Colorado “needs a photo ID to vote in person.” Kemp
said on Fox News that, according to what he was told, “they also have a photo ID requirement.” And Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton
said on Fox News: “I have some shocking, actually horrible news for all your viewers, especially for all the social justice fighters at Major League Baseball: it seems like Colorado needs a photo identification to vote in person.”
None of that is true. Colorado allows both photo ID and non-photo ID to vote in person; the list of acceptable non-photo identification includes a recent utility bill, bank statement, government check or salary; a Medicare card; or a copy of a birth certificate. (The full list is online for anyone to read.) Georgia, on the other hand, needs a photo ID to vote in person.
Scott’s tweet that both states have ‘voter ID’ is therefore correct, but the two states do not have the same requirements for voter ID, not even for personal votes. And under the new Georgia legislation, states differ even more when it comes to postal voting.
Under the previous law in Georgia, election officials verified voters’ identities by checking the signatures attached to their ballot papers. Under the new law, voters must provide a Georgia driver’s license number, the number on their state identification card or the last four digits of their social security number. If they have none of this, they can provide one of several alternative forms of identification, such as a copy of an account, a bank statement or a government check.
In Colorado, a signature is sufficient for voters other than first-time Colorado voters who have not yet provided their state of identity to election officials in the state.
Proponents of the Georgia law are entitled to argue that its identity provision for postal voting is not particularly heavy, given how many options it offers voters. But it’s just wrong to point out that Georgia’s determination is the same as Colorado’s determination.
Colorado has a softer restriction on handouts to voters
Price’s newly removed virus tweet from The Daily Caller noted that Colorado also has a restriction on people handing out food and drink to voters standing in line.
It’s true. But the restriction is much narrower than the many criticisms of food and water restrictions in the new Georgia legislation.
Colorado says campaigners can share “water, snacks and other items” to voters. It only says that these people are not allowed to wear clothes or accessories with the name of a candidate or party if they are within 100 feet of the polling station.
Georgia law, conversely, states that “any person” is prohibited from handing out any gift to voters, including food and drink, within 25 feet of any voter in line or within 150 feet of the polling station. The only exception is for election staff who set up water stations unsupervised.
Other provisions
It is noteworthy that Republicans who compare Georgia law with Colorado law do not mention some of the most important provisions of Georgia law.
For example, Georgia law allows the Republican-controlled state electoral council to manually elect someone to temporarily take control of a provincial electoral council that the state council deems to be in violation of state election law or policy. The Council of State is allowed to take control of four provincial electoral systems simultaneously.
