The political tussle in Georgia intensifies as Republican legislators maneuver to make significant changes to the state's election laws. In a push to address widespread GOP discontent rooted in former President Donald Trump's baseless claims of a stolen election, the Georgia Senate recently passed Senate Bill 189, which stipulates that votes should be counted using printed text on ballots instead of using QR codes, as reported by WABE.
Adding to the contention, Republican lawmakers are advancing House Bill 1112, which seeks to remove Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from the State Election Board, amidst his defense of the 2020 presidential election's legitimacy against unfounded fraud allegations. The bill could strip Raffensperger of his ex-officio, non-voting capacity and leave him more vulnerable to criticism, as Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, told FOX 5 Atlanta, "He would lose his ex-officio capacity."
The Senate's move, which comes amidst a flurry of election-law revisions, marks a critical stage in the state's ongoing feud over electoral procedures. Cast against a backdrop of persistent distrust in Dominion Voting Systems machines, a sentiment fueled by unfounded conspiracy theories, and a high-profile legal settlement involving Fox News, these legislative efforts indicate the depth of Republican lawmakers' commitment to change.
"The biggest challenge that a voter has is knowing that their vote was correctly recorded," said Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, who sponsored Senate Bill 189. Burn's Ethics Committee approved a state constitutional amendment ensuring only U.S. citizens can vote in Georgia elections, with supporters and Raffensperger pushing the measure as a preventive safeguard. Simultaneously, Republicans have also zeroed in on and may eliminate drop boxes for ballot collection, citing them as a target in their wider election security concerns. Some GOP members harbor hopes that new optical scanners, funded with a proposed $5 million earmarked in a state budget amendment, could be purchased to count ballots without QR codes this year, albeit not for the primary vote tally but for auditing purposes.
Democrats contest the rush to overhaul election systems, arguing that there isn't sufficient time before the upcoming election to implement such sweeping changes. “All I know is, we have an election around the corner and there is not time to deal with all this new technology now,” stated Sen. Sally Harrell.
