Georgia Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday making it easier to kick voters off the rolls through mass challenges, according to a copy of the bill sent to lawmakers and shared with NBC News by an aide to two of the bill’s sponsors.
Changes to the challenge rules were proposed to Senate Bill 221 on Tuesday night, part of a committee substitute replacing a previous version of the bill.
A draft of proposed legislation was released hours after NBC News exclusively revealed that at least 92,000 voter registrations were challenged in Georgia last year. Amateur fraud hunters largely used voter rolls, public records (including change-of-address data from the U.S. Postal Service) and some door-to-door canvassing in their claims that voters were ineligible.
Most of the challenges were rejected, and some counties said broadly that having mail forwarded was not enough evidence to conclude a voter moved. Some people spend time at other addresses without abandoning their residency in the state, advocates and election administrators told NBC News.
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The new S.B. 221 would change that, noting that appearing on the postal service’s change-of-address database “shall constitute sufficient cause to sustain the challenge against the elector” unless the voter is determined meet certain exceptions like being a student.
It’s unclear if sustaining the challenge would result in the voter’s registration getting canceled or require further action from county or election administrators, but voting rights advocates cautioned against the bill in a Tuesday briefing.
“If being on the [National Change of Address System] meant it was enough to take you off the voter rolls, that would be disastrous, and I hope immediately thrown out of court,” said Vasu Abhiraman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, arguing federal voting rights law would prohibit such a rule.
Challenges made within 45 days of an election would be delayed, according to the legislation.
Jason Frazier, a Fulton County resident who filed thousands of 2022 voter challenges, spoke in defense of the bill at a Tuesday committee hearing.
“For the most part, I love the bill. I think it will help out quite a bit with the voter challenges,” he said. “I’m not trying to disenfranchise anybody, but we need to do this the right way.”
The bill would also increase the security and surveillance on drop boxes in Georgia, requiring election officials to have video cameras and enough lighting to show voters’ faces when they deposit their ballots.
Those recordings, the bill says, must available online.
“It encourages vigilante intimidation and disenfranchisement,” said Esosa Osa, deputy executive director of voting rights group Fair Fight Action.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
