Georgia’s Democrats say Republicans at the state level are furiously introducing new strict voting legislation, much of which critics say aims to reduce the record black attendance that elevated President Joe Biden in November.
Representative Hank Johnson of Atlanta is among several House Democrats who accuse Georgia Republicans of introducing new “voter integrity” bills that aim to end traditional campaigns to withdraw votes in black communities. Republicans, who control both chambers of the state General Assembly and the governor’s office, proposed a bill last week that would eliminate early voting on Sundays – a move that black religious leaders say is directed directly at their recent efforts to increase electoral participation. Boosting the historic record of turnout in minority communities across the state, more than 4 million Georgia voters voted early or absent in the 2020 general election.
A Republican who was overthrown in part by Georgia’s election participation efforts, former Senator Kelly Loeffler, announced on Monday that she is starting a rival voting rights group that seeks to counter Abrams. Loeffler and his GOP colleague, former Georgia senator David Perdue, were defeated by Democrats in January 2021.
“If left to their own devices, Republicans will try to limit the ability of minority voters to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” said Johnson, a Georgia Democrat who co-sponsored a federal electoral law bill that Republicans labeled “overkill”.
THE House bill which is scheduled for a vote next week would require early voting periods in states like Georgia and would force districts with a history of racial discrimination to report any changes to the voting law to federal officials first.
Republicans on the Georgia House Special Committee on Electoral Integrity introduced several pieces of legislation that would create radical changes in states’ voting requirements. Republican Party Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was scorned by former President Donald Trump for not helping him topple the November election, said he supports photo ID requirements for absent ballots.
But dozens of newly filed bills would limit the time that absentee ballots can be requested and create several new obstacles to voting by mail – a method used in large numbers last November by black voters.
“It’s the vote-hunting season in Georgia,” Johnson told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
“It is a new form of suppression of voters, the Klan in three-piece suits instead of white hoods,” said Rev. Timothy McDonald III of the First Iconic Baptist Church in Atlanta, who attended the election events. “They know the power of the black vote and their goal is to suppress that power,” McDonald told AP.
Black religious leaders rejected Georgia Republicans, like state deputy Barry Fleming, who described the legislation as “an attempt to restore confidence in our electoral system”. Republican Party bills that would restrict voter access on Sundays are a flagrant attack on Black churches, some pastors told the AP.
“It is a new form of suppression of voters, the Klan in three-piece suits instead of white hoods,” said Rev. Timothy McDonald III of the First Iconic Baptist Church in Atlanta. “They know the power of the black vote and their goal is to suppress that power.”
CHRIS CARLSON / Staff / Getty Images
For more information on this story, read additional reports from the Associated Press below.
Biden beat former President Donald Trump by about 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democrat to win a presidential race in Georgia since 1992. Biden has received almost twice the number of absent votes as Trump in a state that has become the leading the target of the unfounded allegations of Trump fraud. Biden’s victory was confirmed in three separate counts, including a manual.
“These measures, in our opinion, are not based on any objective, data-based and evidence-based assessment of the issue, but only with the intention of undermining black voters and other communities of concern,” said Democratic state deputy Michael Smith , chairman of the Georgia Black Legislative Policy Committee.
Republicans are trying to limit the forms of voting that have been extremely popular. After states expanded access to mail and early voting during the coronavirus pandemic, nearly 70% of all ballots launched across the country occurred before election day.