The guardian
Georgia Republicans make new efforts to make it harder to vote
The bill, which would limit early voting on Sundays, is being denounced as a concerted effort to suppress the votes of Black Georgians’ voters in the Dunbar neighborhood of Atlanta. Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, said there was no justification for the bill. Photo: Tannen Maury / EPA Sign up for the Fight to Vote newsletter Georgia Republicans unveil new legislation that would make it dramatically harder to vote in the state, following a record-breaking election and rising turnout among black voters . The measure is one of the most shameless attempts in recent years to make it harder to vote in America. The bill would prevent officials from voting early on Sundays, a day traditionally used by black churches to mobilize voters as part of an effort to vote for the ballot box. This would place new limits on the use of ballot papers, restrict those who can handle an absent ballot paper, and require voters to provide their driver’s license number or a copy of other identification along with their application for consent. It will also require voters to provide the same driving license information on the consent itself or the last four digits of their social security number if they do not have an acceptable ID. The bill gives voters less time to request and return votes, not only to return the deadline for submitting an application, but also to request requests to start 78 days before an election, instead of the current one. 180, to be limited. wrongly thrown into the wrong area and banning organizers from offering food or water to voters standing in line to vote. “With precise precision, the bill is aimed at colored voters,” said Nse Ufot, head of the New Georgia project, one of the groups that mobilized colored voters in Georgia. “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 votes and voices of black Georgians.” Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, one of the groups that helped mobilize black voters last year, said there was no justification for the bill. One of the ways Butler’s group helped voters before the election was to help them return their absentee ballot applications to election officials. The Republican proposal would ban it. ‘There is no reason for that, except this ideology and the misinformation that there was fraud. There was no fraud in the election. “The governor, everyone said there was no fraud,” she said in an interview. Barry Fleming, the sponsor’s bill, said in a hearing Thursday that the changes to early voting are an attempt to create uniformity in the state. He said that the attempt to shorten the voting period for curtailment is trying to make it overlap with personal votes. The attempt to shorten the approval of cuts comes after many voters saw serious delays in receiving their ballots due to delays with the U.S. Postal Service and overwhelming election offices. About a third of the early votes in the state were from black voters and Joe Biden won the postal vote in Georgia overwhelmingly. “His newfound problem with early voting is simple: too many Black Georgians have used it, and Republicans have been humiliated,” said Seth Bringman, a spokeswoman for Fair Fight Action, the civic action group led by former Democratic government candidate Stacey Abrams. . “Instead of listening to the wishes of conspiracy theorists and insurgents, he must listen from both parties to the thousands of early voters in his district.” Republicans promised the changes in Georgia after Joe Biden meticulously led the state in November and Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, received incredible outrage over Republican positions in November. State officials, including Republicans, have repeatedly said there was no evidence of electoral fraud, but Republicans promised to impose new restrictions anyway. A separate bill being considered in the state legislature would eliminate the absence of absenteeism without excuse, something Republicans enrolled in law in 2005 that allows people to vote by mail only if they are 75 years or older or ‘ have an excuse. Republicans unveiled the bill a little over an hour before a hearing, giving the public and lawmakers little time to investigate what was in it. More than two dozen groups wrote to Fleming on Thursday, urging him to interrupt further consideration of the measure. “It contains a set of proposals that would have devastating consequences for voting rights in Georgia,” they wrote. “It is absolutely unacceptable that lawmakers, advocates of suffrage and the people of Georgia have been blinded by this release.” Georgia’s effort comes amid a nationwide push, led by Republicans, to impose a spate of new voting restrictions after the 2020 election. There are at least 165 bills in 33 states that will make it harder to vote, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice. ‘Lose the right! Now they are trying to change the rules and make it harder to vote, ‘said Deborah Scott, executive director of Georgia Stand-Up, another group that worked to mobilize Black voters, in an email. “It is unfortunate that black and colored people in Georgia must continue to fight for our civil rights in 2021.”