” … the election bill was approved by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.
It calls for changing the rules and processes for requesting an absentee ballot, including requiring voters to present valid forms of photo identification. It also limits drop boxes and the early voting period for runoffs.”
“The new law also allows the state to take over county elections or remove local elections officials if there is a determined need to intervene.
Further, it prevents food and beverages from being provided by outside groups to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots.”
“Georgia was one of the key states that the Trump campaign focused on as it honed in on unfounded claims of voter fraud during and after the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia by roughly 12,000 votes.”
Comment: IMO, this new state law, if had existed and had been judged constitutional by the federal courts, would have prevented a Democratic victory in Georgia in the presidential election and there would have been no run-off in the two senate races. In other words, I think the Democrats successfully stuffed the ballot boxes in a number of ingenious ways. pl
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgias-election-overhaul-bill-passes
The ingeniousness of the Democratic party in the 2020 election was to get more voters both to the polls and voting by absentee ballots. It was that simple. Even Kemp’s administration saw that. They saw no trickery or fraud and they looked hard for it. They know the Republican party in Georgia is in trouble if more eligible voters vote. The goal of that bill is to reduce voter participation. That is unless it is accompanied by an effort to open more polling places where voters live and more working machines in those polling places.
TTG+
If that is the case the Democrats should be able to replicate the performance under this law and without an unconstitutional federal takeover of elections.
Except the Georgia State AG now fully controls who has ready access to polling places and sufficient voting machines. I doubt if many Republican precincts will endure 6+ hour lines and closed/moved polling places. If every voter had to endure a 3 0r 4 hour wait to vote, it would be a level field. Wider absentee voting did the same thing. No, the last thing Republicans want is a level playing field.
You mean the state will now prevent local election boards run by democrats from reducing the number of in-person voting sites like the democrats did during the primary in Georgia?
“If every voter had to endure a 3 0r 4 hour wait to vote…”
wow, once every two years I have to endure 3 or 4 ours of line to make sure idiots don’t get into office? Sign me up. Unless, of course, Covid 2021/2/3/ infinity threatens the extermination of mankind, requiring 15 days to slow the spread lockdowns (George Floyd protests exempt) like last time around.
“Wider absentee…” They automatically mailed out multiple ballots and did essentially no verification of eligability beforehand and almost none on receipt. That was an invitation for fraud. The Republicans in GA don’t need to stand in line, they need to ballot harvest and utilize media exactly the same way.
It’s odd that affluent precincts seldom suffer from closed polling places, broken machines or excessive lines. Once the Supreme Court allowed it, over 1,200 polling places in predominantly black precincts were closed across the south.
GA didn’t automatically mail out ballots to all voters. The only ones who got ballots automatically were those who checked elderly and/or disabled the last time they applied for an absentee ballot. Everyone else had to apply for their ballot.
TTG,
“..over 1,200 polling places in predominantly black precincts were closed across the south”
Across the South, how many states not named Georgia is that, and how will this Georgia law apply to them?
For clarification the absontee ballot requests were mass mailed.
https://www.ajc.com/politics/groups-mass-mail-absentee-ballot-applications-to-georgia-voters/BCG7GB7UDVAVRGM2MGPMW73TGY/
There would never be fraud there; nor was Covid or historicaly low turnout a rationale for closing locations, only racism. Just like every other election the Democrats lose.
TTG
““..over 1,200 polling places in predominantly black precincts were closed across the south”” Citation?
Here’s a sampling of articles on the closing of polling places.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-locations/southern-us-states-have-closed-1200-polling-places-in-recent-years-rights-group-idUSKCN1VV09J
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/460644-southern-states-have-closed-hundred-of-polling-places-since
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/report-more-than-1600-polling-places-have-closed-since-the-supreme-court-gutted-the-voting-rights-act/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgzqn7/its-very-much-a-racial-issue-why-georgia-has-slashed-hundreds-of-polling-places-in-the-last-4-years
It is harder to find sufficient poll workers to keep polling places open (basically volunteers who have to commit to a very long day and upfront training).
Lots of former polling places now closed, even in “non-black” communities in our county. Spirit of civic volunteerism has been dying, with each new generation.
Counties now choose cheaper alternatives than manning individual polling stations or paying enough to overcome lack of volunteers – so they go to mail and machines. Most poll volunteers in our county are aging white people or public union operatives.
Losing the single election day was a huge calculated loss too – makes being a local grass-roots candidate almost impossible -also part of the plan. Now it takes big money and heavy endorsements to weather the very long campaign period now required by mail in ballots.
TTG,
The reuters article from 2 years ago points out that Supreme Court decision was from 2013, almost a decade before the 2020 election. In fact every single acticle you made reference to cited the same study. It’s just like all the news organizations citing the Steele Dossier.
Then there is the yawning silence of Barack Obama’s failure to defend Black voters in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. Just what was the DOJ doing, besides fabricating evidence to facilitate spying on Trump? What were the locals doing? Oh, that’s right, changing voting methods so showing up in person and proving who you were and that you were eligible to vote in that precinct wasn’t required.
TTG, in Florida we had laws tougher than the new Georgia Law and still had record “minority” voters.
There are several cases now of voter fraud and voter manipulation, but you can never change people’s behavior in blue counties…lol
Why don’t we make Florida’s Voters Laws the national standard?
The Florida 2020 election was a model for all states, especially the way it handled absentee voting. They started processing mail in ballots long before election day preventing the late mail in surge in the ballot count. All states should do that. Florida Republicans are obviously confident in their ability to win fair statewide elections… except for that one district that ran a sham candidate to trick Democratic voters. The former Republican state senator is being prosecuted by the Florida AG for that fraud. Good on Florida for that.
There might be more than one SHAM candidate, this happens all the time on both sides.
They always get busted.
You can not fix stupid.
Meanwhile out in California La La Land, is Gov Newsom signing his own recall death warrant? https://presscalifornia.com/2021/03/26/l-a-times-to-run-or-kill-a-newsom-affairs-expose/
Anonymous sources …. never a good start for an article. But the story is someone is trying to push this story for the past two days, corroborated or not. Which sounds pretty much like the last four years of anti-Trump politics coming out of California sources – Pelosi, Schiff, Harris, Feinstein and Swalwell.
How does it feel, Newsom?
Voter ID laws are so obvious a good thing that I still do not understand why it is an issue in the USA.
However… “Further, it prevents food and beverages from being provided by outside groups to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots”? Wtf?! That can not be seen as anything other than a try at voting supression.
Six hours lines to vote are insane too.
Elections should always be on a weekend.
Just found this about Georgia:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2021/03/26/four-months-after-election-and-still-no-chain-of-custody-paperwork-evident-for-404000-georgia-ballots-left-in-drop-boxes/