Georgia Republicans Pass the Most Restrictive Voting Laws Since Jim Crow
Following unexpected Democratic victories in Georgia in November and January, Republicans in the state Senate voted Monday to significantly curtail the right to vote.
On Monday afternoon, the legislators approved a bill repealing no-excuse absentee voting, which 1.3 million voters used to cast ballots by mail in 2020, including 450,000 Republicans. They were also set to consider a bill on Monday evening ending automatic voter registration, which 5 million of the state’s 7.6 million voters used to register since it was implemented in 2016.
The Senate bills follow the passage of a sweeping House bill last week that cuts weekend voting days—including on Sundays, when Black churches hold “Souls to the Polls” get-out-the-vote drives—restricts the use of mail ballot drop boxes, prevents counties from accepting grants from nonprofits to improve their elections, adds new voter ID requirements for mail ballots, gives election official less time to send out mail ballots and voters less time to return them, and even makes it a crime to distribute food and water to voters waiting in line.
Collectively, these bills represent the most sustained effort to roll back access to the ballot in Georgia since the Jim Crow era. The same is true nationally, where Republicans have introduced 253 bills in 43 states in the first two months of this year to make it harder to vote.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/georgia-republicans-pass-the-most-restrictive-voting-laws-since-jim-crow/
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