On March 25, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law “A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT,” a bill that apparently no one wanted their name on. Here’s why this untitled bill is one of the worst cases of voter suppression we have seen in decades.
According to NBC News coverage of the bill’s announcement, Kemp justified the law saying, “Significant reforms to our state elections were needed. There’s no doubt there were many alarming issues with how the election was handled, and those problems, understandably, led to a crisis of confidence.”
For those of you who may remember the Georgia lawmaker who was arrested for knocking on Kemp’s door, this is that same law that the governor insisted to sign behind closed doors.
Bitterly disappointed by the 2020 presidential election loss, here are the overhauls that Georgia Republicans have made to the state electoral system:
The early voting period has been lengthened, but those who wish to vote absentee must be able to provide a driver’s license or some other form of state ID. Those who do not hold either of those must follow a stringent process of additional proof of identification.
Drop boxes for early voting ballots now cannot be placed in libraries or other local government buildings that would be more convenient for voters. Now, they can only be placed in designated early voting locations. Additionally, during the last four days of the election where it is too late to mail in a ballot, early voting drop boxes will also be closed.
You might recall the fiasco when a phone call was leaked between former President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where Raffensperger, a Republican, refused to “find” more Republican ballots for the president.
Under the new election reform law, the Georgia Secretary of State no longer serves as chair of the State Elections Board. That position is now decided by the Georgia General Assembly, currently a Republican-led legislature.
The legislature now has the power to temporarily suspend local election officials pending a formal review of their conduct. What this means is that in Democrat-led counties where the officials counting the ballots are likely also Democrats, the legislature can now choose to push them aside during elections and install their own officials.
By far, the strangest provision to this untitled bill is that volunteers can no longer provide food, water or folding chairs to voters waiting in line. This appears to be in response to the latest election, where many of the Democrat-led areas had long lines of voters waiting for hours at a time, and most Republican areas had much shorter wait times.
The justification given for banning this was that it opens the possibility of abuse in the form of influencing voters, despite there being no history of this. In fact, this volunteer system seen across the country is known for being nonpartisan and a gesture of goodwill to encourage voter participation.
The last provision of the bill, Section 53, reads, “All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.” Essentially, Section 53 rubber-stamps the removal of any existing or future law that is in conflict with it until this legislature itself is removed or changed.
In his March 25 press conference, President Joe Biden responded to the bill saying, “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”
This is one of the worst cases of voter suppression going back to Jim Crow times. Protestors have been demonstrating since its signage. But Kemp has largely refused to speak on the subject except for the initial press conference.
Graphic by Micheal Yelton
