The report on a new 93-page bill comes about an hour before the scheduled hearing of a special election integrity committee in the Georgia House, and it sparked the outrage of suffrage activists calling it a ‘shameful’ bait. call-and-switch tactics.
“They are attacking voting rights from every angle,” said Hillary Holley of Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group, at a hastily scheduled news conference.
Earlier in the day, the committee’s public agenda described the hearing as the focus of a two-page bill, which deals specifically with the absence of voting rights – only to replace the bill.
The unexpected move comes as the legislature in Georgia takes place on the planned closing of its legislative session on March 31st. The new package contains elements of other controversial bills that have already been passed by the State House and the Senate – along with several new measures.
Some suffrage activists have singled out for criticism a provision that would give any Georgian the right to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters. In the run-up to the Senate by-elections on January 5, groups such as the conservative organization True the Vote were trying to cast doubt on the suitability of hundreds of thousands of voters in Georgia.
“It invites people to interfere with the rights of the electorate,” Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, said in the new language bill. It’s so reminiscent of any white person who can say, ‘The black person can not vote. ‘”
Rep. Georgia State Representative Barry Fleming, who oversees the committee and leads the Georgia House bills, did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
But during Wednesday’s sitting, he said fellow lawmakers would have a chance to ‘discuss and ask questions’ about the bill. “The committee will make the final decision on what we do or do not do,” he added. His committee is expected to resume work on Thursday.
Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature has been at the forefront of efforts to set new limits nationwide, following a barrage of false allegations by former President Donald Trump that fraud led to his election loss last November.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election, and prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are investigating Trump’s attempt to lead state officials.
Georgia’s changing demographics have made the long-standing Republican stronghold an important political battleground. Last November, President Joe Biden became the first Democrat in nearly three decades to win the state. And a strong turnout in January helped send two Democrats to the U.S. Senate, which transferred control of the chamber to their party. One of the new senators, Raphael Warnock, has taken his seat in a special election and will be on the ballot again in 2022.
The preamble to the new bill states that changes are needed to address the ‘lack of voter confidence in the electoral system’.
The bill makes broad changes to the way elections are conducted and how and when voters can receive and vote their ballots. Under the proposal, for example, voters would have to request absentee ballots 11 days before an election rather than the Friday before election day as is currently allowed. And voters who are absent must provide a copy of their identification or the number of their Georgia driving license or state ID.
It is not clear which of the bills being considered in Georgia is likely to pass and go to the desk of state Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. In an email, Caleb McMichen, a spokesman for House Speaker David Ralston, said it was “premature” to assume that the bill that landed today would be “the final bill or that it would be the final version.” will be.’