Former President Trump is applauding a Republican-led electoral reform project in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost in November in a defeat he falsely attributed to electoral fraud.
“Congratulations to Georgia and the Georgia State Legislature for changing voter rules and regulations,” Trump said in a statement through his PAC Save America, The Hill reported.
“They learned from the 2020 Presidential Election farce, which will never happen again. Too bad these changes could not have been made before! “
The electoral reform bill was sanctioned on Thursday. It limits the window in which absent ballots can be requested and reduces the number of places and times of access to the ballot boxes.
The measure also allows state legislators to nominate the president of the electoral council and remove and replace county election officials, in a rebuke to the power of elected officials.
Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who was in charge of the electoral process under the old rules, rejected Trump’s post-election demands to “find 11,780 votes” to win the race for him and the Republican Party.
President Biden called the legislation “Jim Crow in the 21st century” on Friday, saying it goes back to the racially discriminatory laws of the past century.
“Among the outrageous parts of this new state law, it ends voting time early, so workers cannot vote after their shift ends,” said Biden.
“This adds strict restrictions on absentee voting that will effectively deny countless voters the right to vote. And it is a crime to provide voters with water while they wait in line – queues that Republican officials themselves created by reducing the number of polling stations across the state, disproportionately in black neighborhoods. ”
Proponents say the new measures will improve electoral integrity.
