Since it continues to get no attention in the media (or, frankly, from national Democrats), it bears repeating what Ari Berman pointed out as perhaps the worst aspect of the Georgia voter suppression law (spoiler alert: it's election nullification). This time, let's let Zach Beauchamp amplify it:
Under current law, key issues in election management — including decisions on disqualifying ballots and voter eligibility — are made by county boards of election. The new law allows the State Board of Elections to determine that these county boards are performing poorly, replacing the entire board with an administrator chosen at the state level.
At the same time, the bill enhances the General Assembly’s control over the state board.
It removes Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who famously stood up to Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results in Georgia, from his role as both chair and voting member of the board. The new chair would be appointed by the legislature, which already appoints two members of the five-person board — meaning that a full majority of the board will now be appointed by the Republican-dominated body.
To simplify: The state board, which now will be fully controlled by the Republican legislative majority, is unilaterally empowered to take over (among other things) the process of disqualifying ballots across the state. Given that Georgia Republicans have helped promote false allegations of voter fraud, it’s easy to see why handing them so much power over local election authorities is so worrying.
So, even if all the voter suppression tactics fail, Republicans can still override election results through the Republican- dominated state board of elections.
Whether this particular provision, much less the law in general, survives court challenges remains to be seen. The Justice Department under Merrick Garland has been tasked with looking at the Georgia law, presumably including this election nullification gambit (which is being copied in other Republican- run states with the same goal of disenfranchising Democratic -- Black and Hispanic -- voters). Through litigation or legislation or both, this racist, anti- democratic crap needs to be stopped.
(Image: Merika-Imgflip)
