Trump Heralds Georgia's New Election Integrity Law: Too Bad It Couldn't Have Come Sooner
Former President Donald Trump heralded the passage of new election integrity legislation in Georgia aimed at tightening up absentee voting requirements, among other reforms.
“Congratulations to Georgia and the Georgia State Legislature on changing their Rules and Regulations,” Trump said on Friday, the day after the Republican-controlled legislature passed the bill and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law.
“They learned from the travesty of the 2020 Presidential Election, which can never be allowed to happen again. Too bad these changes could not have been done sooner!” he added.
Statement from President Trump! ?? pic.twitter.com/LX2To2UsX2
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) March 26, 2021
Former Vice President Mike Pence offered similar praise.
“Election Integrity is a National Imperative and Georgia’s passage of S.B. 202 will ensure fairer & more secure elections in the Peach State!” he tweeted.
Election Integrity is a National Imperative and Georgia’s passage of S.B. 202 will ensure fairer & more secure elections in the Peach State! Thank you to General Assembly Republicans & @GovKemp for helping to restore public trust in elections. More states should follow soon!??
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) March 26, 2021
The new law requires absentee voters to submit a driver’s license number or state ID number while applying for a ballot, which replaces the signature matching process, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“In addition, the legislation sets a deadline to request absentee ballots 11 days before election day and disqualifies provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct,” the Journal-Constitution added.
Further, the bill mandates that drop boxes must be made available in all counties, but requires them to be under “constant surveillance” by election staff or security.
“Significant reforms to our state elections were needed. There’s no doubt there were many alarming issues with how the election was handled, and those problems, understandably, led to a crisis of confidence in the ballot box here in Georgia,” Kemp said after signing the bill.
President Joe Biden, who won Georgia by about 12,000 votes, claimed the legislation was a re-institution of “Jim Crow.”
“This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience,” Biden said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
“This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act.”
Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams similarly told CNN earlier this month, “I absolutely agree that it’s racist. It is a redux of Jim Crow, in a suit and tie.”
Stacey Abrams says she agrees with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that efforts by GOP lawmakers in Georgia to make it more difficult to vote is “racist.”
“It is a redux of Jim Crow, in a suit and tie.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/nDVCaBZRvH
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 14, 2021
Abrams told CNN the bill ended Sunday early voting, but the final version of the law did not, Politico reported.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board disputed the notion that the election integrity measures enacted in Georgia amount to a revival of Jim Crow.
“Georgia has had record voter numbers in recent years, including outstanding black turnout, and these proposals won’t reverse that,” The Journal argued.
Literacy tests and poll taxes were two of the common ways African-Americans were denied the right to vote in the Jim Crow South, according to History.com.
Absentee ballots were at the center of concerns about potential voter fraud in Georgia in November.
A Georgia judge stated last week that he may allow a government watchdog group to examine absentee ballots cast in November’s election in Fulton County, in the Atlanta metro area, for irregularities.
Garland Favorito, a voting integrity advocate with VoterGA, said “county workers likely fabricated ballots and counted some ballots multiple times on election night,” citing video of the counting and sworn statements from observers.
Poll watchers at State Farm Arena in Fulton County were told by election officials that counting had stopped for the night, only for surveillance video to reveal it resumed in the overnight hours.
This article appeared originally on Patriot Project.
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