By Maria Ortiz
May 7, 2024, 10:43 PM EDT
Georgia Republican Gov. Bryan Kemp signed on Tuesday a law that introduces dramatic changes to the right to vote and in the way elections are conducted in the state, just a few months before the 2024 presidential elections.
The new law, SB 189, creates a new process regarding How Counties Can Remove Voter Registrations from Voter Rolls and will allow question voter eligibilityin addition to a measure that would make it easier for an independent candidate to qualify for the presidential ticketprovisions that could determine the outcome of the November elections in this key state, according to CNN.
The ACLU of Georgia said it would sue to block the new ruleswhich its executive director, Andrea Young, described as a “step backwards for voter rights and voting access” in the state.
Under the new law, “any political party or political body” that has gained access to the ballot in at least 20 states or territories can qualify for the Georgia presidential election.
That could benefit independent or third-party presidential candidates in a state where Joe Biden narrowly edged Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Previously, independent or third-party candidates they were required to collect at least 7,500 signatures from registered Georgia voters to qualify for the ballot in the state.
Other new measures change voter registration procedures
A new provision in Georgia state election law expands what constitutes “probable cause” necessary to defend voter registration challenges. It would include evidence that a voter died, obtained an exemption from homestead taxes on him or her in a different jurisdiction, or registered to vote at a non-residential address.
Since the 2020 election sparked widespread false accusations of voter fraud in Georgia, individual activists in the state have filed tens of thousands of voter eligibility challenges.
A 2021 Georgia law stipulated thate a single voter could file an unlimited number of challenges and election officials in some large counties were inundated with demands to remove voters from the rolls during the 2022 midterm elections.
The new rule also allows the use of a U.S. Postal Service change of address database to file challenges, although cannot be the sole basis for canceling a voter’s registration.
The measure creates new procedures on how homeless people register to vote, requiring them to register with their county elections office, while another part of the bill allows counties to, in the future, remove voters from the rolls if they are registered at non-residential addresses.
The ACLU has said this would lead to disenfranchisement.
The new law also allows voters to be removed from voter registration lists up to 45 days before the elections. Federal law says states can’t remove people from voter rolls within the previous 90 days to an election.
This is the second election reform bill Kemp has signed into law since 2020.
The previous law, SB 202, made it more difficult to obtain an absentee ballot and prohibited bringing food or gifts to people waiting to vote.
The law too transferred control over the leadership of the state electoral board from the secretary of state to the legislature and allowed average citizens to file an unlimited number of challenges to people’s voter registrations.
Keep reading:
– Department of Justice launches website on voting rights and elections
– Survey reveals more partisan differences over voting and election rules in the US.
– New figures show the record of laws that restrict voting approved so far this year