Republican senators in Georgia introduced a series of bills on Monday, several of which could make it difficult to vote in the state.
The proposals come after Democrats managed to turn the state to blue in major US Senate contests last month and during the November presidential race.
State Republicans introduced eight pieces of legislation on Monday, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). Most of these pieces would have a direct impact on the way voting and electoral registration are conducted in the state, which recorded record turnout among voters during the second round of the Senate and the presidential election.
Bill 71 of the Senate, which is among these bills, seeks to place more restrictions on who can vote absent. The bill includes a series of requirements that a voter would have to meet to be able to vote by mail, including being “absent from his constituency during the primary season”, having a physical disability that would prevent him from being able to go to the polls or at least have 75 years old.
The bill also includes exemptions for voters with religious reasons that prevent them from going to the polls and for election workers.
Senate Bill 70 would make voters who vote outside Georgia in a general election for a US House representative or US Senator and subsequently move to Peach State “ineligible to vote in a second round. for any of these positions in this state in the same election cycle. “
Other bills were introduced by the state’s Senate Republican Party on Monday that would prevent absent ballots from being returned via hanging boxes or would only allow the Secretary of State, electoral superintendents, a board of registrars, candidates or their committees campaign members to distribute the missing voting forms.
A bill, Senate Bill 69, would repeal what is known as the “Motor Voter Act” and prevent Georgia residents from automatically registering to vote or update their voter information through applications to obtain, renew or modify a driver’s license or state identity card, unless the voter “affirmatively and specifically in such a requirement indicates his desire to register to vote and signs the electoral registration requirement”, states the legislation.
Another bill would require voters to be absent from ballot papers, would also provide the driver’s license number, the state ID card number or photocopies of their form of identification. The project includes exemptions for service members and those who are abroad.
This project has 26 co-sponsors, of which, according to the GPB, a handful were part of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who was unsuccessfully trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election result .
The voting legislation introduced on Monday has already begun to draw criticism from voting rights advocates. It also comes days after another Republican in the state Senate, Jason Anavitarte, introduced a bill requiring voters to send copies of their photo IDs to election officials twice before they can vote by absent vote.
Seth Bringman, a spokesman for Fair Fight, a national voting rights organization founded by former Democratic candidate for Georgia, Stacey Abrams, pointed out the legislation in a statement this week.
“This unbalanced set of projects to suppress voters of a radical Republican leadership in the Senate appears to be intended to appease conspiracy theorists like those who invaded the Capitol last month,” said Bringman.
“The bills are unnecessary due to the Republicans’ own assessments of the 2020 elections and are designed to limit access and help Republicans stop losing elections in Georgia. Republicans drafted Georgia’s electoral laws, but were humiliated on November 3 and January 5, so they’re trying to silence Georgians, especially communities of color, who have exercised their power to change Georgia, ”he continued.
Bringman said the voting rights organization and its allies are “prepared to fight all Republican attempts to reverse voting rights”.
“His desperation to maintain power at the expense of Georgians’ constitutional right to access the vote has never been clearer,” he added.
Fair Fight was one of several voting rights groups that received high praise last year for its organizing efforts to help boost Democrats during the U.S. runoff and presidential election.
Abrams’ efforts to combat voter suppression in Georgia before both elections were also cited when she was nominated this week for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Monday, which was also the first day of Black History Month and the last day that a person could be nominated for the award, Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party politician in the Norwegian Parliament, said that “the work of Abrams remains in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. safe in the fight for equality before the law and civil rights. “