GOP-led Georgia House passes sweeping elections bill that would limit voting access
Source: The Hill
The Georgia House of Representatives on Monday passed Republican-backed legislation that seeks to place limitations on access to absentee and early voting in the state, among other restrictions.
As reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the chamber passed House Bill 531 in a party-line 97-72 vote. The bill now heads to the state Senate for consideration.
If the bill is passed by the upper chamber and signed into law, voters would be required to submit a driver's license number, state identification card number or photocopy of an approved form of identification in order to vote absentee in the state. Currently, absentee ballots are tallied using signature verification, according to The Associated Press.
The bill would also include restrictions for ballot drop box locations, reduce the time period for voters to be able to request absentee ballots and prohibit outside election funding from nonprofits, the Journal-Constitution reported.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-led-georgia-house-passes-sweeping-elections-bill-that-would-limit-voting-access/ar-BB1e86Eb?li=BB141NW3&ocid=DELLDHP
NoMoreRepugs
(9,260 posts)mdbl
(4,972 posts)Blatant vote suppression. The only reason those morons are in office is because they have convinced simple-minded georgians to hate the libs. Sad.
Lonestarblue
(9,880 posts)I answered my own question, I think, after finding information on another site.
House Bill 531, which passed 97-72 Monday, would also strip the secretary of state of his role as chair of the State Election Board, prevent county elections offices from receiving direct grant funding, shorten Georgia's runoff election period and require counties to add more staff, equipment or polling places in large precincts with long voter lines. https://news.wfsu.org/npr-news/2021-03-01/georgia-house-passes-elections-bill-that-would-limit-absentee-and-early-voting
Preventing county elections offices from receiving direct grants may be a shot at Stacey Abrams and her work at the local level to get people registered. If counties have too few staff to register voters, then no voters get registered.
Also, preventing any outside funding also hits hard at her statewide work because much of that was funded by donations outside of Georgia. In effect, they would be shutting down voter registration efforts, and given that Republicans came up with this bill I assume that is their goal.