Election Integrity Act of 2021

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Election Integrity Act of 2021
Seal of Georgia.svg
Georgia State Legislature
Full name Election Integrity Act of 2021
Introduced February 17, 2021
House voted March 25, 2021
Senate voted March 8, 2021
Signed into law March 25, 2021
Sponsor(s) Sens. Max Burns, Butch Miller, Michael Dugan, Frank Ginn, Lee Anderson, Randy Robertson, Jeff Mullis, John Albers, Larry Walker, Matt Brass, Jason Anavitarte, Marty Harbin, Billy Hickman, Dean Burke, Sheila McNeill, Brandon Beach, Bruce Thompson, Tyler Harper, Carden Summers, Chuck Payne, Chuck Hufstetler, Blake Tillery, John Kennedy; Rep. Barry Fleming
Governor Brian Kemp
Code Elections
Resolution SB 202
Website legis.ga.gov
Status: Current legislation

The Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as Georgia Senate Bill 202,[1][2] is a Georgia law overhauling elections in the state. It mandates voter identification requirements on absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, expands early in-person voting, bars officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, increases voting stations or staff and equipment where there have been long lines, makes it a crime for outside groups to give free food or water to voters waiting in line, gives the Georgia General Assembly greater control over election administration, and shortens runoff elections, among other provisions.[3][4][5]

The bill has generated significant controversy, with President Joe Biden labeling the bill "Jim Crow in the 21st century".[6] Georgia governor Brian Kemp has called criticism of the bill "disingenuous and completely false", and has argued that it differs little from voting laws in most other states.[7][8] The Department of Justice announced in June 2021 that it is suing Georgia over the law, which it alleges is racially discriminatory.[9]

Key provisions

File:Election Integrity Act of 2021 (U.S. state of Georgia).pdf
Text of the act

Absentee voting

Ballot drop boxes

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in Georgia allowed the use of ballot drop boxes in the 2020 presidential election. The Election Integrity Act codifies the permanent use of drop boxes in general elections and mandates at least one box per county, but also places more onerous restrictions on their use.[10] Most notably, it limits additional drop boxes to either one per 100,000 registered voters or one per voting location, whichever is fewer; this caps the number of drop boxes in the four counties making up the core of the Atlanta metro area (Fulton County, Cobb County, DeKalb County, and Gwinnett County) at 23 (or fewer, depending on how many early-voting sites the counties provide)—significantly fewer than the 94 drop boxes the counties used in the 2020 election.[3] It also requires drop boxes to be located indoors in early voting locations and mandates that they only be accessible when those polling locations are open (in the 2020 election, drop boxes were available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week in a variety of locations), and closes drop boxes four days before Election Day, when turning absentee ballots into the US Post Office begins running the risk they will arrive at election offices late.[10]

Voter ID

The bill requires absentee voters to provide their driver's license number, last four digits of their Social Security number, or a photo copy of an accepted form of identification when requesting an absentee ballot.[11]

Absentee ballot requests

The act shortens the amount of time voters have to request absentee ballots by over half, pushing the beginning of the time period voters can request an absentee ballot from six months before the election to three months before[3] and moving back the deadline to request an absentee from four days before Election Day to eleven days before.[10] It also bars state and local officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request applications to registered voters.[lower-alpha 1][10]

Early in-person voting

The bill mandates three weeks of early in-person voting, including two Saturdays and the option of including two Sundays. This is likely to modestly expand early voting in rural counties.[3]

It also bans the use of mobile voting centers, which were utilized in Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election.[3]

Legislative control of election administration

The bill gives the Georgia General Assembly greater control over election administration. Ordinarily, important administrative decisions like ballot disqualification and certification of results are made by county boards of elections.[12] Under the new law, the State Board of Elections is empowered to replace county boards with an administrator chosen at the state level if the State Board deems a county board to be performing poorly. It simultaneously gives the state legislature greater control over the State Board by replacing the Secretary of State as chair of the Board (he is made an ex-officio, nonvoting member[10]) with an official appointed by the legislature; the legislature already appoints two of the five seats on the board, so under the new law the legislature appoints a majority of the board.[13] According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this enables "state takeovers of local election offices"—including deciding which ballots should be disqualified[13]—which could "change the outcome of future elections, especially if they're as hotly contested as the 2020 presidential election between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump".[12]

The provision has been linked to unsuccessful attempts by Republicans to overturn election results in Georgia, especially in heavily Democratic counties like Fulton County, during the 2020 presidential election.[12] In that election, many Republican state lawmakers parroted unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud, claimed that the State Board of Elections had exceeded its authority in approving certain new rules to make voting more accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushed for election results to be overturned, and attempted to call an emergency special legislative session to award the state's electoral votes in the Electoral College to Donald Trump.[14][15] As Zack Beauchamp explains in Vox, the bill "allows Republicans to seize control of how elections are administered in Fulton County and other heavily Democratic areas, disqualifying voters and ballots as they see fit".[13]

It has also been alleged that the provision removing the Secretary of State from the Board of Elections is targeted at Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State who oversaw the 2020 election in Georgia and famously rebuffed attempts by Donald Trump and state lawmakers to overturn Georgia's election results.[13][3]

Runoff and primary elections

In Georgia, Senate elections employ a runoff system in which the top two candidates go to a second-round runoff election if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the first round. Additionally, prior to the passage of the Election Integrity Act, special Senate elections (elections held to replace a senator who has resigned or died) used nonpartisan blanket elections (also referred to as "jungle elections") in which all candidates, regardless of political party, ran against each other in the first round. The Election Integrity Act shortens the runoff election from nine weeks after the first round to four weeks (which has the effect of reducing early voting for the second round election to just a few days[10]) and replaces the nonpartisan blanket election in special elections with a standard partisan election preceded by party primary elections.[16] It would also prohibit new voters from being registered for the runoff.[17] According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, these provisions have the effect of making it more likely that the leading candidate in the first round will prevail in the runoff.[16]

The changes have been linked to the 2020 United States Senate elections in Georgia,[lower-alpha 2] in which the Democratic candidates unseated the incumbent Republicans, delivering a narrow Senate majority to the Democratic Party.[18] According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, had these changes been in place for the 2020 elections, they may have made it more likely that the Republican incumbents would have held their seats.[16] In particular, shortened runoffs would have shortened early voting, which benefited Democrats in the 2020 Senate races; and no nonpartisan blanket elections in the special election would have prevented the protracted intra-party battles between the leading Republican candidates Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins, which diverted energy away from campaigning against Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock.[10]

Long voting lines

Long voting lines have been a problem in Georgia and they are most common in poor, urban areas, which tend to vote more heavily for the Democratic Party.[3] The bill makes efforts to reduce long lines at voting stations. Officials in charge of precincts with more than 2,000 voters that had waiting longer than an hour in the 2020 election will be required to either open another voting station or add more staff, equipment, or both to the existing station. Pollworkers will be allowed to work in counties where they do not reside.[5]

Providing free food and water

As part of a broader ban on giving out money or gifts to voters, the act makes it illegal for volunteers to provide free food or water to people waiting in line to vote within 150 feet (46 m) of polling locations and 25 feet (7.6 m) of voting lines, except that volunteers and election officials are allowed to make available self-service water from an unattended dispenser to voters in line.[5] Critics have argued that the provision disproportionately affects Black voters, who face longer lines on average.[19][20]

Polling location

Prior to the law, Georgia voters who mistakenly went to the incorrect polling location were allowed to cast provisional ballots (ballots that are set aside to verify eligibility). In the 2020 election, wrong polling location was by far the most common reason for casting a provisional ballot (and provisional ballots as a whole went much more heavily to Democratic candidate Joe Biden than the state as a whole).[3] The new law removes the option of casting a provisional ballot if the voter arrives at the wrong polling location prior to 5 pm and instead requires them to travel to the correct precinct.[3]

Private funding of elections

Many jurisdictions in Georgia, particularly those in poorer urban areas, rely on donations from outside organizations like the Center for Tech and Civic Life to fund elections.[3] The bill prohibits these donations.

Legislative history

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Main article: Republican efforts to make voting laws more restrictive following the 2020 presidential election § Georgia

The Republican effort to reform voting laws began in early January, 2021, when Georgia Republicans appointed state Representative Barry Fleming, who as attorney of Hancock County had defended a controversial voter roll update that challenged the eligibility of nearly 20% of Sparta, Georgia's residents (almost all Black), to the chairmanship of the Georgia Special Committee on Election Integrity.[21] By late February, the first elections bill had cleared a chamber of the Georgia General Assembly.[22] Passed in the Georgia State Senate on February 23, 2021 in a nearly party-line vote, Senate Bill 67 would have required a photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot.

The first comprehensive election bill to be considered was House Bill 531, sponsored by Fleming.[22] That bill would have restricted where ballot drop boxes can be located and when they can be accessed, required photo identification for absentee voting, made the deadline to request an absentee ballot earlier, made it a misdemeanor to hand out food or drink to voters waiting in line, and limited early voting hours on weekends, among many other changes.[23][24] Most controversially, it would have restricted early voting on Sundays, when Black churches traditionally run "Souls to the Polls" get-out-the-vote efforts.[25] House Bill 531 passed the House in a party-line vote on March 1, 2021.[26]

In the Senate, Senate Bill 202 first appeared as a small, two-page bill to prohibit organizations from sending absentee ballot applications to voters who have already requested a ballot.[27] It passed in that form on March 8, the deadline bills must pass at least one chamber of the Assembly.

On March 17, 2021, with House Bill 531, Fleming's original comprehensive elections bill, now being considered in the Senate, word emerged that the two-page Senate Bill 202 (now in the House) would be vastly expanded by Fleming into a 93-page omnibus bill.[28] As the end of March neared (the Georgia General Assembly adjourns on March 31), Republican efforts consolidated around the two omnibus bills.[29][30] Ultimately, on March 25, 2021, both chambers passed Senate Bill 202, named the "Election Integrity Act of 2021".[4] It was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp that evening.[4]

Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan (R) said that momentum for the legislation grew from misinformation by former president Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.[31]

The bill is part of Republican efforts to change election laws in various states following the 2020 presidential election. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden won Georgia [32][33][34][35] and Democrats won the two U. S. Senate seats that represented Georgia, a state that previously elected Republicans.[10] According to The New York Times, the bill "will, in particular, curtail ballot access for voters in booming urban and suburban counties, home to many Democrats".[3]

Legal challenges

The bill quickly drew a number of legal challenges, with groups challenging the law including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the League of Women Voters of Georgia, the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter, the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe, the Georgia Muslim Voter Project, Women Watch Afrika, the Latino Community Fund Georgia, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.[36][17][37] They argue that the bill violates the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section Two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which forbids racially discriminatory voting rules.[38] The Georgia NAACP further alleges that Republican officials are purposefully attempting to discriminate against black Georgians "in order to maintain the tenuous hold the Republican Party has in Georgia" (Democratic wins in the state in 2020—especially the two Senate races—were fueled by high black turnout, as well as rapid ethnic diversification of the Atlanta metropolitan area[39][40]).[38]

On June 25, 2021, the Department of Justice announced it would sue Georgia over the law on the basis that it is racially discriminatory.[41]

Backlash

In response to the bill, and after pressure from civil rights groups,[42] Major League Baseball (MLB) announced it would be moving the 2021 All-Star game out of suburban Atlanta.[43] In a statement outlining his opposition to the bill, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred asserted that "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box".[43] Georgia Governor Brian Kemp responded by claiming that the MLB caved to "fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies" and called the decision an example of cancel culture.[44] Voting rights activist and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams stated her disappointment over the decision, saying, "I don't want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs," while also stating she understood why it was made.[45] In early April, Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and Representative Jeff Duncan announced that they would be pursuing retaliatory legislation to revoke MLB's antitrust exemption over its opposition to the law.[46]

Delta Air Lines and The Coca-Cola Company, two companies based in Georgia, issued statements denouncing the bill.[47] In response to the criticism by Delta Air Lines (the state's largest employer), the Georgia House of Representatives passed a retaliatory bill ending a tax break on jet fuel (the bill failed to advance in the state Senate).[48] Commenting on the Delta bill, state House Speaker David Ralston quipped, "You don't feed a dog that bites your hand".[47] The Speaker also went on camera to proclaim that he had recently drunk a Pepsi.[49]

Other companies, including the Atlanta Falcons, Home Depot, and UPS, followed suit, issuing statements condemning the bill or asserting their belief that politicians should be making it "easier, not harder, for Americans to exercise their right to vote".[50][51][52] A group of 72 black corporate executives, hailing from companies such as Merck & Co., Ariel Investments, and Citigroup, issued a letter calling on companies to fight the restrictive voting bills being advanced by Republicans across the United States.[53] Republican lawmakers responded by castigating the companies, with Senator Marco Rubio decrying them as "woke corporate hypocrites".[52] Former president Donald Trump, who was the central promoter of claims of widespread election fraud and the principal agent in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, called for Republicans and conservatives to boycott Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Association, ESPN, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, ABC News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Home Depot, Hasbro, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Delta Air Lines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup, Cisco, United Airlines, American Airlines, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Stellantis, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, Facebook, Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Microsoft, Twitter, SnapChat, Mars, Incorporated, Quaker Oats, Ben and Jerry's, Walt Disney Company, Merck & Co., and other companies he accused of being "woke".[54]

Actor Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua announced in a joint statement that production of their upcoming film, Emancipation, would be pulled from Georgia due to the passage of the law: "We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access."[55] Meanwhile, filmmaker Ryan Coogler assured that he would keep the production of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the state while also objecting to the law.[56]

On Wednesday, April 14, hundreds of corporations, executives and celebrities opposed the voting restrictions in 2-page ad spreads in The New York Times, The Washington Post and some other major newspapers.[57][58][59]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In the June 2020 Georgia primary election, Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger mailed every registered voter in the state an absentee ballot application. For the 2020 presidential election, he did not do the same, but several local government agencies—particularly urban ones—did mail voters absentee ballot request forms.[3]
  2. ↑ Two Senate elections were held in Georgia in 2020: the regularly scheduled 2020 class II Georgia Senate election, in which incumbent David Perdue (R) was unseated by Jon Ossoff (D); and the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia to fill the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson (R), in which Raphael Warnock (D) defeated Kelly Loeffler (R), who had temporarily held the seat after being appointed by Governor Brian Kemp (R) following Isakson's resignation.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ SB202, Georgia General Assembly
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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