As you likely know, election reform has been all the rage in recent years, particularly after the 2020 elections. The latest to make massive and long-lasting changes is Governor Brian Kemp’s state of Georgia.
Seeing as Georgia is a southern state, tending to lean a bit more red than blue, and one with a Republican governor, you might be surprised it’s taken this long to put new election laws into place there.
Then again, thanks to the debacle of the 2020 election and the following 2021 special election in the Peach State, things have been a bit sticky, to say the least. Despite several outlets reporting that “stolen elections” in the state were “debunked” theories, plenty of other credible voter fraud cases have turned up to make the new bill critical.
But better late than never, and just in time for the upcoming 2024 election.
The new bill, known as SB189, was officially signed into law on Tuesday. Much of it has to do with voter rolls and the constant need to remove the names of those who have either died, moved to another state, etc., and are no longer eligible to vote in the state of Georgia.
Additionally, the bill creates hard deadlines for counting absentee ballots, will remove QR codes from ballots come 2026, and maintains that voter rolls may be challenged as early as 45 days ahead of an election.
But the real kicker is that the bill has officially removed the Georgia Secretary of State from the State Election Board, according to the Washington Examiner.
You may remember that much of the issues with Georgia’s disaster of 2020 began and ended with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. It was become of him that it took so long for the election results to come in and because of him that several thousand ballots in Fulton County were scanned twice.
Remarkably, Raffensperger hasn’t been too upset about the change of his duties. In fact, he even praised Governor Kemp and the state for being able to put the new law into place.
Of course, there are plenty of liberals who aren’t happy about it.
You know, those like Stacey Abrams, a woman known as the second sorest loser in the country, after Hillary Clinton, of course. According to her, this a “voter suppression bill that emboldens right-wing activists in their effort to kick Black and brown voters off the rolls.”
Gov. Kemp returns to his suppression roots with the signing of #SB189: an escalation of his consistent assault on voting rights. This law is surgically designed to disenfranchise Black and brown voters & seniors and puts a cruel target on Georgia's homeless population.
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) May 8, 2024
I doubt it has anything to do with the fact that she lost to Kemp for the governorship of Georgia not once but twice…
But I digress.
Progressive groups like the American Civil Liberties Union also weren’t thrilled with the news.
The governor has allowed SB 189 to become law, imposing more barriers for Georgia voters and elections administrators. https://t.co/BHxg8OG6yK pic.twitter.com/FzuVhmUvEy
— ACLU of Georgia (@ACLUofGA) May 7, 2024
However, despite all that leftist whining, it’s become quite clear that a law such as this could only help the state’s elections, making them more fair and secure. Thanks to changes in voter roll maintenance and deadlines for absentee ballots, possible voter fraud will be limited. Those same changes and allowing for challenges to voter rolls will also eliminate some of the sloppiness that we’ve seen destroy our recent elections.
Of course, the bill will likely also go a long way in handing the state to Trump come November, seeing as he only barely lost it in 2020.
