State Rep. John LaHood, R-Valdosta, speaks in favor of Election Bill SB 189, concerning poll scanners, on the House of Representatives within the Capitol in Atlanta on Sine Die, the final day of the legislative session, Thursday, March 28, 2024. LaHood is the sponsor of the invoice within the House.
Arvin Temkar/AP
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Arvin Temkar/AP
State Rep. John LaHood, R-Valdosta, speaks in favor of Election Bill SB 189, concerning poll scanners, on the House of Representatives within the Capitol in Atlanta on Sine Die, the final day of the legislative session, Thursday, March 28, 2024. LaHood is the sponsor of the invoice within the House.
Arvin Temkar/AP
ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers on Thursday permitted new rules for difficult voters and qualifying for the state’s presidential poll that could impact the 2024 presidential race within the battleground state.
Senate Bill 189 handed the House by a vote of 101 to 73 and the Senate by a vote of 33-22, sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto.
Republicans in Georgia have repeatedly floated election modifications within the wake of false claims by former President Donald Trump and different Republicans that he misplaced Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020 due to fraud.
The invoice would grant entry to Georgia’s poll to any political social gathering that has certified for the presidential poll in at the very least 20 states or territories. The change could be a lift to unbiased candidates akin to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose marketing campaign has spooked Democrats anxious it could draw help away from President Joe Biden.
The invoice additionally spells out what constitutes “probable cause” for upholding challenges to voter eligibility, which could result in voters being faraway from the rolls. Probable trigger would exist if somebody is useless, has voted or registered to vote in a unique jurisdiction, has registered for a homestead exemption on their property taxes in a unique jurisdiction or is registered at a nonresidential deal with.
“We define probable cause very simply,” mentioned Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican.
Democrats slammed the supply, saying it might allow extra baseless assaults on voters that would overwhelm election directors and disenfranchise folks. More than 100,000 voters have been challenged in recent times by Republican activists who say they’re rooting out fraudulent registrations, with hundreds of challenges submitted at a time in some massive Georgia counties.
Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat, mentioned the supply was based mostly on “lies and fearmongering.”
“You know the policy of not negotiating with terrorists,” she mentioned. “I wish we had a policy of not making laws to placate conspiracy theorists.”
Democrat Ruwa Romman of Duluth mentioned the invoice and others prefer it chip away at confidence within the U.S. election system, a bedrock of its democracy.
“We have a responsibility to push back on lies, not turn them into legislation,” she mentioned.
Republican Rep. Victor Anderson of Cornelia defended the voter problem part, pointing to a provision deeming the looks of somebody’s identify on the U.S. Postal Service’s nationwide change of deal with record inadequate by itself to maintain a problem. He additionally famous a provision suspending challenges that happen inside 45 days of an election.
“Colleagues, I contend that our bill actually makes the process of challenging more difficult,” he mentioned.
House Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman John LaHood, a Valdosta Republican, mentioned the invoice will increase confidence in elections.
“What this bill does is ensure that your legal vote does matter,” he mentioned.
The invoice additionally would require counties to report the outcomes of all absentee ballots by an hour after polls shut and let counties use paper ballots in elections the place fewer than 5,000 individuals are registered, although that change wouldn’t take impact till 2025.
The measure additionally says that starting July 1, 2026, the state could not use a form of barcode, known as a QR code, to rely ballots created on the state poll marking gadgets. That is how votes are counted now, however opponents say voters do not belief QR codes as a result of they can not learn them. Instead, the invoice says ballots have to be learn utilizing the textual content, or human readable marks like filled-in bubbles, made by the machines.
State lawmakers have already got despatched payments to the governor that would require audits of a couple of statewide election, add a further safety function on ballots, limit who can function ballot staff to U.S. residents and permit a lowered variety of voting machines.