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The passage of SB 202 will inch the legislation one step closer to becoming law as the GOP-led state Legislature hopes to successfully make election changes in the 2021 session, underscoring a national Republican effort that aims to restrict access to the ballot box following record turnout in the November election.
The bill was amended in the House; because of those changes, members of both chambers will have to go into conference to negotiate final changes and the Senate will have to pass the amended bill, a move that is likely to come next week, right before the legislative session is set to end.
The legislation would limit drop boxes to inside of early voting locations during voting hours, make giving food or drinks to a voter a misdemeanor, allow for unlimited challenges to voter registrations and eligibility, set up a fraud hotline, and require counties to keep counting ballots without a break in between. It would also shorten the runoff cycle from the current nine weeks to just four weeks.
Voting rights groups have slammed the omnibus bill particularly for its provisions that strip authority from the elected secretary of state and grant state officials broad rights, including the ability to replace local election officials.
“It will make what we all lived through in 2020, child’s play,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo — CEO of Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group founded by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams — in a news conference on Tuesday, as the bill was approved to head to the full House for a vote.
Voting rights groups argue that granting the state new powers over county elections bucks the tradition of local control and could lead to a scenario in which state officials swoop in to prevent a county from certifying its election results.
“Donald Trump won’t have to strong arm our election administrators. The most radical fringes of the Republican Party, city and state Legislature, will be able to wipe out boards of elections, challenge voters because they don’t have the right name according to them or they don’t look the way a voter should look,” said Groh-Wargo.
“This is Jim Crow 2.0 and those who think that that is hyperbolic need to read this bill,” she added.
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