Other bills proposed by senators would create new pitfalls for Georgia voters. Senate Bill 69 would scrap the state’s automatic voter-registration system by no longer updating voters’ registration whenever they “obtain, renew, or change” their driver’s license information. Instead, they would have to opt in to the system. It’s hard to see a fraud-based justification for the move, since a first-time driver’s license applicant in Georgia generally provides a host of documents to prove their identity, including their Social Security number and proof of U.S. citizenship. The best explanation may be the most straightforward one: The bill’s co-sponsors simply want fewer Georgians registered and able to vote.
As Georgia Public Broadcasting noted, many of the bills’ co-sponsors spread misinformation about the general election on Trump’s behalf over the past few months. Some even filed briefs in favor of Texas’s attempt to get the Supreme Court to throw out electoral votes for President Joe Biden. Other backers are more circumspect. “I want every legal vote counted, and I want better access for all voters,” Georgia State Senator Butch Miller, who co-sponsored some of the bills, told the Associated Press. “Accusing our reform efforts of suppression is a political tactic, pure and simple. Even those of us who never claimed that the election was stolen recognize that the electorate has lost confidence in the legitimacy of the system.”
This is a pretty convenient explanation. There is, of course, no substantive proof of fraud or misconduct in Georgia’s general election results. Raffensperger ordered a statewide audit and recount of more than five million paper ballots that produced a slight net gain of votes for Trump but did not seriously alter the outcome of the presidential race. At the Trump campaign’s request, the state also conducted a recount of the machine results, which confirmed Biden’s victory yet again. And though their partisan affiliation shouldn’t matter, Georgia’s elections are overseen by a Republican governor and a Republican secretary of state.
wild_bloom_boom on February 5th, 2021 at 13:05 UTC »
The article didn't even mention the nearly 200,000 mostly minority voters who were found to have been purged from Georgia's voter registration system before the 2020 election for no justifiable reason. The official claim was that many of them had 'moved' when people has lived at the same house for much of their lives, decades in some cases. Claims that some had 'asked to be removed' when you have to file a specific form in GA to be removed from the registration system. No proof of any such forms filed and the voters themselves report that they never filed this form..... because nothing had changed and they wanted to remain registered to vote. Still removed. Georgia is a swamp of criminals and racists desperately trying to keep grasp on a state that is increasingly diverse and progressive.
Crumbsplash on February 5th, 2021 at 13:05 UTC »
I feel like I read this exact headline every 2 years
GoldenC0mpany on February 5th, 2021 at 12:48 UTC »
My question is what are Dems doing to counter these measures? We can’t be asleep at the wheel. Gerrymandering and voter suppression must end!