By Parin Amin
Many state legislators want you to believe the reason Georgia flipped blue was widespread voter fraud. This flimsy claim has yet to be validated by any court, likely because actual evidence of this widespread fraud is nonexistent. This “big lie” is what led to the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the second impeachment of former President Donald J Trump. Less than a week later, Georgia Republicans would start their attempted insurrection against our democracy.
Wise people often say the simplest solution is usually the best solution. In politics, this truism can also apply to legislative priorities and motivations. Georgia’s conservative-led legislature is considering a set of bills that would effectively limit the number of Georgians who participate in our democracy. On the heels of a historic election cycle in the state, the bills appear to be a flagrant power grab, by a party that could lose the governor’s mansion in 2022.
Georgia Republican State Legislators are considering the
following Bills:
SB67 requiring a photocopy of a valid ID to be submitted
when applying for an absentee ballot.
SB68 banning absentee ballot drop boxes.
SB69 ending automatic voter registration.
SB70 prohibiting new Georgians from voting in runoffs.
SB71 ending no excuse absentee voting.
SB72 mandating monthly updates to election officials of
voters who have died.
SB73 banning 3rd party mailing of applications
for absentee ballots.
HB531 all of the above plus some extra voter suppression for
good measure.
Legislators in support of these bills are arguing they will restore integrity to the election process by restricting absentee ballot use. Absentee ballots have been historically more often used by Georgia Republicans since they enacted the bill in 2005. The Republicans want you to believe absentee ballots
are now ripe for fraud; now that the election outcome did not go their way.
The Jan. 5 U.S. Senate runoffs were a tipping point for the Georgia GOP. Not only did they lose the state in the presidential election, they watched for two months as President Trump and GOP officials spread wild
conspiracies alleging widespread voter fraud in Georgia. In January, voters watched as both incumbent Georgia senators were ousted in an election that was the second most consequential election of the cycle.
The entire nation watched as Secretary of State Ben Raffensperger and elections manager Gabriel Sterling held press conference after press conference, reassuring Georgians, and all Americans of the integrity of the election; through a month’s long effort of counting, hand recounting, and signature audits.
Mr. Sterling, Georgia’s elections manager, held a press conference where he methodically dismantled every claim of voter fraud the Georgia GOP brought concerning the integrity of the election. For this courageous effort, Gabriel Sterling was rewarded with death threats directed at his boss, himself, and his employees from his own, fellow Republicans.
At a 2018 campaign fundraiser, Gov. Brian Kemp said he was concerned about Democratic voters’ use of absentee ballots.
“They have an unprecedented number of that,” Kemp said. “It continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote.”
Concerned about voter turnout in 2018, and proven correct about that concern in November 2020 and January 2021, the Georgia GOP is now working hard to solve the big lie.
SB67 would make it harder for those without access to a photo copier, to apply for a ballot. Some other states have enacted this type of legislation and the effects are, predictably, voter suppression. In those
states, non-profit organizations have been forced to drive copying machines to voters to help them exercise their right to vote. These are the obstacles the Georgia GOP wants you to navigate through to exercise your right to vote. More obstacles like this or historical ones like literacy tests and poll taxes, have
the desired effect of limiting voter participation because more participation leads Republican losses.
Many voters who were worried postal delays could possibly infringe their right to vote found ballot drop boxes a convenient and secure option, especially during a pandemic. SB68 would ban them because convenience, security and your health are not priorities for the Georgia GOP. Convenient and secure voting options would equate to more ballots and therefor Republican losses.
SB69 would end the popular “Motor Voter Registration” program. This automatic voter registration program gives you the option to register to vote at the DMV when you get a new license or renew your existing driver’s license. Both options require proof of address, which makes voter registrations
more accurate. If the process is easy, more voters would participate, and that could again lead to more voters and Republican losses.
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If you recently moved to Georgia and are eager to exercise your constitutional right to vote, SB70 would prohibit you from voting in a runoff election. If new Georgians could vote in a runoff, more voters would participate, and again those pesky Republican losses are more likely.
SB71 seeks to ban no excuse absentee balloting. Georgia Republicans enacted no excuse absentee balloting legislation in 2005 and reaped its rewards pre-pandemic. Now that most Georgia voters enjoy the convenience and security of absentee balloting, Georgia Republicans again seek to limit who can apply for an absentee ballot. If you are 75 or older, have a physical disability, are observing a religious holiday, or cannot vote in person because of employment obligations limited to Public Safety only, then you could still apply for an absentee ballot. The rest of us are not worthy of this convenience according to the Georgia GOP. They alone get to decide who deserves to vote absentee.
SB72 would increase the burden placed on election boards already stretched thin. Evidence of widespread fraud via dead people voting, is nonexistent. Isolated and rare cases do exist, but we know about these because existing policies already catch this type of fraud. This bill seeks to speed up the purging of voters from the rolls, of which the methods currently used are not 100% accurate. Recent studies using the gold standard of list management have found an error rate of up to 66%. This should not surprise anyone as multiple lawsuits regarding past voter roll purges have resulted in court ordered restoration of those purged voters.
HB531 seeks to limit early in person voting. It seeks to end early voting at 5 p.m. and to end Sunday early voting. Black churches host “Souls to the Polls” events on Sundays and eliminating Sunday voting is clearly an attempt to suppress the vote of certain voters. It also seeks to ban line warming, a tradition where volunteers hand out food and drinks to people waiting in long lines that can take upwards of two hours to get through.
These restrictive voting bills offer a simple view of what motivates the Georgia GOP this legislative session. They are not really worried about election integrity; they are worried about election participation. They are attempting to secure the election outcomes they want, by limiting participation in our democracy. Because when the voters reject your platform, apparently the best legislative recourse is to reject the voters.
Parin Amin is a guest columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at parinamin@gmail.com
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