ATL Standard

Georgia lawmakers have passed a law to reform Georgian electoral processes for the sake of voter integrity.

Sponsored by State Sen. Max Burns, GA SB202 proposes a number of robust provisions to protect the integrity of the voting process, including establishing a voter ID requirement, increasing ballot drop box security, creating stricter rules for absentee voting and expanding access to early voting. According to the bill, voter IDs would be provided free of charge.

"I am committed to ensuring that every legal vote counts, that Georgia law is followed, and that all citizens have confidence in the election process," Burns said in a statement on his website.

The 98-page bill was approved in response to widespread allegations of voter irregularity and voter fraud. The provisions within SB202 seek to make both fraud and irregularity far more difficult in the Georgian election system by promoting legal voting and disincentivizing fraud.

Bi-partisan election officials in Georgia and across the country have refuted allegations of voter fraud and no evidence of unusual voter fraud has been presented in courts of law or any other venue.

Critics argue that the new bill is a form of voter suppression that will make it more difficult for minorities to vote. Similar arguments emerged about stricter voting practices put in place for the 2020 general election, but recent voting data indicates allegations of minority voter suppression both before and after the 2020 election to be false, according to Peach Tree Times. 

States with more stringent voting requirements did not observe significant drops in minority voting during November elections. However, the 2020 election saw record voter participation due to a variety of political and social factors, and absentee voting increased substantially as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Liberals have lambasted Georgia for 'purging' voters and restricting ballot access,” Wall Street Journal editors said, Peach Tree Times reported. “But Georgia had a smaller black-white voting gap than Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia and California – all states controlled by Democrats.”

Heritage Foundation analyst Hans A. Von Spakovsky observes that a higher voter turnout occurred in 2020 from all races, including black Americans, when compared to turnout percentages in 2016. 

U.S. bill H.R.1 is currently moving through the house and would undermine recently passed Georgian election integrity laws were it to garner a Senate majority, reported Peach Tree Times. The bill seeks to require at least two weeks of early voting and allow states to forgo verifying signatures on mail-in ballots. These factors would ultimately require states to permit ballot harvesting.

A March 2021 poll conducted by Rasmussen shows that 75% of likely U.S. voters believe that voters should be legally required to show photo ID before being allowed to cast a ballot and only 21% of likely voters opposed such a requirement.

According to the Peach Tree Times, millions of dollars in donations from an election advocacy group linked to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have been associated with multiple progressive causes, including with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican. David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, donated $5.6 million to Raffensperger out of a reported $67 million received from Mark Zuckerberg.