User:Jaydavidmartin/Election Integrity Act of 2021

The Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as Georgia Senate Bill 202, is a Georgia law overhauling state elections. It imposes voter identification requirements on absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, expands early in-person voting, bars officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, makes it a crime to give food or water to voters waiting in line, gives the state legislature greater control over election administration, and shortens runoff elections, among other provisions.

The bill is part of a broader nationwide push by Republican lawmakers to make voting laws more restrictive following the 2020 presidential election, which was marred by a Republican effort to overturn the victory of Democratic candidate Joe Biden—focused in particular on Georgia and several other swing states—using false claims of widespread election fraud. Additionally, it follows a major upset for Republicans in the traditionally red state after voters narrowly went for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential election and elected Democrats to both of the state's Senate seats. According to the New York Times, the bill "will, in particular, curtail ballot access for voters in booming urban and suburban counties, home to many Democrats".

Ballot drop boxes
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in Georgia allowed the use of ballot drop boxes in the 2020 presidential election. The Election Integrity Act codifies the permanent use of drop boxes in general elections and mandates at least one box per county, but also places more onerous restrictions on their use. Most notably, it limits additional drop boxes to either one per 100,000 registered voters or one per voting location, whichever is fewer; this caps the number of drop boxes in the four counties making up the core of the Atlanta metro area (Fulton County, Cobb County, DeKalb County, and Gwinnett County) at 23 (or fewer, depending on how many early-voting sites the counties provide)—significantly less than the 96 drop boxes the counties used in the 2020 election. It also requires drop boxes to be located indoors in early voting locations and mandates that they only be accessible when those polling locations are open (in the 2020 election, drop boxes were available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week in a variety of locations), and closes drop boxes four days before Election Day, when turning absentee ballots into the US Post Office begins running the risk they will arrive at election offices late.

Voter ID
The bill requires absentee voters to provide their driver's license number, last four digits of their Social Security number, or a photo copy of an accepted form of identification when requesting an absentee ballot.

Absentee ballot requests
The act shortens the amount of time voters have to request absentee ballots by over half, pushing the beginning of the time period voters can request an absentee ballot from six months before the election to three months before and moving back the deadline to request an absentee from four days before Election Day to eleven days before. It also bars state and local officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request applications to registered voters.

Early in-person voting
The bill mandates three weeks of early in-person voting, including two Saturdays and the option of including two Sundays. This is likely to modestly expand early voting in rural counties.

It also bans the use of mobile voting centers, which were utilized in Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election.

Legislative control of election administration
The bill gives the state legislature greater control over election administration. Ordinarily, important administerial decisions like ballot disqualification and certification of results are made by county boards of elections. Under the new law, the State Board of Elections is empowered to replace county boards with an administrator chosen at the state level if the State Board deems a county board to be performing poorly. It simultaneously gives the state legislature greater control over the State Board by replacing the Secretary of State as chair of the Board (he is made an ex-officio, nonvoting member ) with an official appointed by the legislature; the legislature already appoints two of the five seats on the board, so under the new law the legislature appoints a majority of the board. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this enables "state takeovers of local election offices"—including deciding which ballots should be disqualified —which could "change the outcome of future elections, especially if they’re as hotly contested as [the 2020 presidential election] between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump".

The provision has been linked to unsuccessful attempts by Republicans to overturn election results in Georgia, especially in heavily Democratic counties like Fulton County, during the 2020 presidential election. In that election, many Republican state lawmakers parroted unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud, claimed that the State Board of Elections had exceeded its authority in approving certain new rules to make voting more accessible during the coronavirus pandemic, pushed for election results to be overturned, and attempted to call an emergency special legislative session to award the state's electoral votes in the Electoral College to Donald Trump. As Zack Beauchamp explains in Vox, the bill "allows Republicans to seize control of how elections are administered in Fulton County and other heavily Democratic areas, disqualifying voters and ballots as they see fit".

It has also been alleged that the provision removing the Secretary of State from the Board of Elections is targeted at Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State who oversaw the 2020 election in Georgia and famously rebuffed attempts by Donald Trump and state lawmakers to overturn Georgia's election results.

Runoff and primary elections
In Georgia, Senate elections employ a runoff system in which the top two candidates go to a second-round runoff election if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the first round. Additionally, prior to the passage of the Election Integrity Act, special Senate elections (elections held to replace a senator who has resigned or died) used nonpartisan blanket elections (also referred to as "jungle elections") in which all candidates, regardless of political party, ran against each other in the first round. The Election Integrity Act shortens the runoff election from nine weeks after the first round to four weeks (which has the effect of reducing early voting for the second round election to just a few days ) and replaces the nonpartisan blanket election in special elections with a standard partisan election preceded by party primary elections. It would also prohibit new voters from being registered for the runoff. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, these provisions have the effect of making it more likely that the leading candidate in the first round will prevail in the runoff.

The changes have been linked to the 2020 Georgia Senate elections, in which the Democratic candidates unseated the incumbent Republicans, delivering a narrow Senate majority to the Democratic Party. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, had these changes been in place for the 2020 elections, they may have made it more likely that the Republican incumbents would have held their seats. In particular, shortened runoffs would have shortened early voting, which benefited Democrats in the 2020 Senate races; and no nonpartisan blanket elections in the special election would have prevented the protracted intra-party battles between the leading Republican candidates Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins, which diverted energy away from campaigning against Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock.

Providing food and water
As part of a broader ban on giving out money or gifts to voters, the act makes it illegal to provide food or water to people waiting in line to vote. Long lines are most common in poor, urban areas, which tend to vote more heavily for the Democratic Party. Critics have argued that the provision disproportionately affects Black voters, who face longer lines on average.

Polling location
Prior to the law, Georgia voters who mistakenly went to the incorrect polling location were allowed to cast provisional ballots (ballots that are set aside to verify eligibility). In the 2020 election, wrong polling location was by far the most common reason for casting a provisional ballot (and provisional ballots as a whole went much more heavily to Democratic candidate Joe Biden than the state as a whole). The new law removes the option of casting a provisional ballot if the voter arrives at the wrong polling location prior to 5 pm and instead requires them to travel to the correct precinct.

Private funding of elections
Many jurisdictions in Georgia, particularly those in poorer urban areas, rely on donations from outside organization like the Center for Tech and Civic Life to fund elections. The bill prohibits these donations.

History
The Republican effort to reform voting laws began in early January, when Georgia Republicans appointed state representative Barry Fleming, who as attorney of Hancock County had defended a controversial voter roll update that challenged the eligibility of nearly 20% of Sparta, Georgia's residents (almost all Black), to the chairmanship of the Georgia Special Committee on Election Integrity. By late February, the first elections bill had cleared a chamber of the Georgia General Assembly. Passed in the Georgia State Senate on February 23, 2021 in a nearly party-line vote, Senate Bill 67 would have require a photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot.

The first comprehensive election bill to be considered was House Bill 531, sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming. That bill would have restricted where ballot drop boxes can be located and when they can be accessed, required photo identification for absentee voting, shifted back the deadline to request an absentee ballot, made it a misdemeanor to hand out food or drink to voters waiting in line, and limited early voting hours on weekends, among many other changes. Most controversially, it would have restricted early voting on Sundays, when Black churches traditionally run "Souls to the Polls" get-out-the-vote efforts. House Bill 531 passed the House in a party-line vote on March 1, 2021.

In the Senate, Senate Bill 202 first appeared as a small, 2-page bill to prohibit organizations from sending absentee ballot applications to voters who have already requested a ballot. It passed in that form on March 8 (the day bills must pass at least one chamber of the Assembly to be further considered).

On March 17, 2021, with House Bill 531, Fleming's original comprehensive elections bill, now being considered in the Senate, word emerged that the 2-page Senate Bill 202 (now in the House) would be vastly expanded by Fleming into a 93-page omnibus bill. As the end of March neared (the Georgia General Assembly adjourns on March 31), Republican efforts consolidated around the two omnibus bills. Ultimately, on March 25, 2021, both chambers passed Senate Bill 202, christened the "Election Integrity Act of 2021". It was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp that evening.

Reactions
Reactions to the bill have largely fallen along partisan lines, with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing.

Backlash
In response to the bill, and after pressure from civil rights groups, Major League Baseball (MLB) moved its 2021 All-Star game out of suburban Atlanta. In a statement, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred stated, "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box". Georgia Governor Brian Kemp responded by claiming that the MLB caved to "fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies" and calling the decision an example of cancel culture. On Twitter, voting rights activist and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams stated her disappointment over the decision, saying, "I don't want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs," while also stating she understood why it was made.

Delta Airlines and The Coca-Cola Company, two companies based in Georgia, also issued statements denouncing the bill. In response to the criticism by Delta Airlines (the state's largest employer), the Georgia House of Representatives passed a retaliatory bill ending a tax break on jet fuel; the bill failed in the state Senate. Commenting on the Delta bill, state House Speaker David Ralston quipped, "You don't feed a dog that bites your hand".

Support
Conservative publications and commentators have similarly voiced support for the bill. In the conservative magazine National Review, Dan McLaughlin defended the provision prohibiting people from handing out food and water to voters waiting in line, arguing it merely prevents electioneering. In the Wall Street Journal,

Opposition
Voting rights groups, represented by Marc Elias, a lawyer frequently employed by the Democratic Party, quickly filed a lawsuit challenging the bill in federal court, arguing that it violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution by enacting "unjustifiable burdens" that disproportionately impact racial minorities, as well as young, poor and disabled voters.

Democrats have also pointed to the bill as reason to pass the For the People Act, a federal voting rights bill that would make nullify a number of provisions in the Election Integrity Act.

Civil rights groups have similarly criticized the bill. Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta NAACP, compared the bill to Jim Crow voting restrictions, saying that "the only thing that's missing out of this voting bill is a poll tax and the question of how many bubbles in a bar of soap and how many jelly beans in a jar".

It has been broadly criticized by liberal political pundits. In New York Magazine, Ed Kilgore alleges that the bill is illustrative of a "determined effort by Republicans to restrict voting in order to claw back power"; Sarah Jones linked the bill to a broader "rot" in the Republican Party, one that "isn't interested in democracy"; In The Intercept, George Chidi criticized the limits to ballot drop box hours, arguing that "it effectively makes the use of the drop boxes impossible for people who work nontraditional hours".