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2021 Georgia Election Law Ignites National Firestorm

Published in Blog on May 06, 2021 by Robert Hein

On March 25, 2021, the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill known as the Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021 (SB-202). The new law legislatively expanded existing laws for voting days and times, clarified others, and added a voter identification procedure for absentee mail-in ballots.

The bill passed both the House and Senate along party lines, with Republicans voting for it and Democrats against it. Almost immediately the President, Congressional Democrats, and major U.S. businesses condemned the law as restrictive of voting rights and racist.

At the start of the 2021 Georgia legislative session, it would have been almost impossible to predict the out-sized effect of its passage. Yet, that is what happened. The President of the United States, the liberal national media outlets and activists, and hundreds of major businesses disapproved.

Their primary objections were that the amended election code reduced voting hours and days, prohibited giving water to persons standing in line to vote, and added an onerous identification requirement when requesting and mailing in an absentee ballot. Opponents' objections disregarded that Georgia has had a voter identification procedure for in-person voting for sixteen years and has greater voting rights than most other states.

The new law provides for the estimated 200,000 who do not have a driver’s license or state identification card to submit the last four numbers of their social security card, a utility bill, or pay stub to show their eligibility to vote. Well over 70% of Georgia and national voters approve of requiring some kind of voter identification. It has bi-partisan support.

COS Georgia carefully monitored over 50 election-related bills introduced in the House and Senate and identified two that would likely pass both houses. The only question would be the specific items were that they both agreed upon in the final version.

Beginning in January and ending March 31, the Georgia COS carefully tracked the progress of the proposed election procedure bills. We also looked at other pending legislation such as SR-28 and SR-29. Those resolutions were introduced by the US Term Limits and Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force seeking a convention of states solely on term limits (SR-28) and a balanced budget (SR-29).

Both Senate resolutions cleared the Senate and moved to the House without amendment but were not passed before the session ended. The Georgia session is actually a two-year period extending to 2022, during which those bills could still be considered and passed or amended by the House.

The Georgia COS Legislative Liaison team watched for proposals that might revoke, sunset, or modify the original 2014 COS resolution. We also listened to our Georgia supporters, volunteers, and leadership to identify important “non-COS” legislation that pertains to our core constitutional beliefs and personal rights. Election integrity was number one on the list.

To hear more from our team on SB 202, keep an eye out for our next installment of this three-part 2021 Georgia Legislative Update

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