GA Republicans' First Assault On Voting Rights

 

The ongoing Republican / Trumpist / GQP plans to rig the 2022 elections and beyond is brazenly moving forward in the key state of Georgia. Nationally, the Republicans have several tools to employ in frustrating the will of the voters who don't vote vote for them, like gerrymandering Congressional districts, passing voting laws that clearly discriminate against Dem constituencies, and post-election nullification of votes to ensure that they remain in power. The latter of those tools is being used in Georgia, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"A letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows two dozen state senators support a performance review of Fulton elections chief Richard Barron. The letter was written Tuesday, the very same day a front-page AJC story examined the prospect of a takeover of elections in Fulton, home to a tenth of all Georgians.  [snip]

As written into Senate Bill 202, the State Election Board can replace a county’s election board following a performance review/audit/investigation. Then, a temporary superintendent would enjoy full managerial authority of how the county counts votes and staffs polling places."

That "temporary superintendant" would be under the control of the State's Republican legislature, which could throw out just enough Dem votes to change a statewide election, such as the 2022 elections with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) on the ballot.

Georgia's notorious Senate Bill 202 was the Republican reaction to losing two Senate seats and the Presidential vote in 2020, establishing onerous new requirements for voting that demonstrably will suppress minority and student votes. The Justice Department filed suit last month in response to the law's discriminatory requirements. Also, Fulton County is heavily Democratic and its county leadership and legal team have pledged to fight the action by the Republican state senators. That fight, supported by the Justice Department's suit, needs to be won.

 

The Worst Part Of The Georgia Jim Crow Law

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)