Georgia Republicans Push For Stricter Requirements For Mail-In Ballots

Topline

In an effort to increase the requirements necessary to vote by mail in Georgia, two state Senate committees reportedly held hearings Thursday to review the state’s voting laws, with Democrats contending that the proposed reforms would result in the disproportionate disenfranchisement of eligible minority voters.

Key Facts

Critical Quote: 

“What this says to me is that they just don’t want people voting,” State Sen. Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat, told the Associated Press. “And they specifically don’t want Democrats voting, or people that don’t support their chosen candidates voting, and they’re going to try to make it as hard as possible.”

Key Background:

When he was announced the victor in Georgia last month, President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the Peach State since Bill Clinton in 1992. Biden narrowly carried the state, tallying just 12,670 more votes than Trump. Mail-in votes played a pivotal role in the president-elect’s victory, with Biden securing 230,400 more absentee votes than the incumbent. Trump has since made countless, baseless allegations of widespread fraud. Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, authorized a hand recount and subsequently reaffirmed Biden’s victory. “There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation and, frankly, they are misleading the president as well, apparently,” Raffensperger said earlier this week. 

Tangent:

Georgia’s two Senate seats will be decided by runoff races in Georgia on January 5, after no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote last month. If Democrat Jon Ossoff were to beat incumbent Sen. David Perdue and Democrat Raphael Warnock to defeat incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Democrats would control 50 of the Senate’s 100 seats, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the potential tiebreaker.  

Big Number: 

1,000,000. That’s how many Georgians have requested mail-in ballots for the January 5 runoff elections, according to Stacey Abrams, who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. 

Further Reading:

Georgia GOP seeks mail-in ballot changes after Biden’s win (AP)

Georgia Election Head Says No Evidence Of Fraud In Second Recount, Slams Trump For ‘Violent Rhetoric’ (Forbes)