ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp drew protests Thursday as he signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.
Democrats and voting rights groups say the law will disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color. It is one of a wave of GOP-backed election bills introduced in states around the country after former President Donald Trump stoked false claims that fraud led to his 2020 election defeat.
President Joe Biden called such GOP efforts “un-American” and “sick” during a news conference Thursday. And a group of voter mobilization groups filed a lawsuit late Thursday in federal court in Atlanta challenging the new law.
The Republican changes to voting law in Georgia follows record-breaking turnout that led to Democratic victories in the presidential contest and two U.S. Senate runoffs in the once reliably red state.
“After the November election last year, I knew, like so many of you, that significant reforms to our state elections were needed,” said Kemp, who drew Trump’s ire after certifying Biden’s victory in Georgia. -snip
They can't win in a fair election, so they play shit-games. Deplorables.
The Department of Justice is suing Georgia over its sweeping election law recently passed by Republicans, alleging it violates the federal Voting Rights Act by seeking to disenfranchise voters.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has also issued a directive to all federal prosecutors and the FBI instructing them to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of individuals who have issued threats against elections officials.
Attorney General Merrick Garland also weighed in on recent Republican efforts to conduct so-called "audits" of the counts from the 2020 election, saying the department is developing guidance to ensure they comply with federal law. The department is also set to publish new guidance related to the upcoming congressional redistricting following the 2020 census.
Garland had signaled just last week that the department's Civil Rights Division would be taking a more aggressive stance against efforts to curb voting rights and voter access, saying in a speech that over the next 30 days he would seek to double the number of staff who handle voting rights protections.
"We are scrutinizing new laws that seek to curb voter access, and where we see violations, we will not hesitate to act," Garland said. "We are also scrutinizing current laws and practices in order to determine whether they discriminate against black voters and other voters of color."
At least 15 GOP-led states have enacted legislation with restrictive voting provisions in the 2021 legislative session, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Garland told reporters Friday that officials in the department's civil rights section are actively reviewing election laws across the country for potential violations of federal law and will not hesitate to bring similar action to what they are now bringing against Georgia.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the Democratic National Committee will invest an additional $25-million to expand its voter access initiatives ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
According to the DNC, the $25-million investment will go to efforts aimed at registering millions of new voters, assembling a voter protection team to use the courts to counter efforts to limit polling access, defending voting rights, and beating back legal challenges to election results.
Speaking at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Harris said: "This is the fight of our lifetime. Americans have successfully blocked some anti-voter bills from becoming law—and others are being challenged in courts."
Good news. But they need to invest more than 25million in combating these sweeping Republican voter suppression laws. Lost track in how many states the GOP is doing it.
Not voting on this bullshit poll because all the choices are... well... bullshit lol.
"Omg, how dare Georgia pass laws that make it harder for people to cheat! This is just unacceptable! How are we supposed to cheat to win an election when they're making it so hard to do so? It's not fair! Hey, let's just make up the BS claim that what Georgia is doing is racist and suppressing legitimate voters, that'll work! Certainly all of our braindead minions will do our bidding and repeat this lie everywhere!"-- democrats
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
Last edited by eThneoLgrRnae on Jul 8th, 2021 at 10:36 PM
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
The BBC article misses a key point on the time restrictions part.
The problem was allowing voting times to be restricted only to 9 to 5. Eliminating the ability for working people to go after work or even before work and that because the early or late voting times aren't required it creates loophole to shut them down at 5.