Peach Tree Times

Democrats in U.S. Congress are pushing sweeping election changes in H.R. 1, which, critics argue, will strip states of their constitutional authority to establish election procedures by codifying many of the controversial voting practices ushered in during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as ballot harvesting and unsecured drop boxes. 

In Georgia that means that election safeguards, including requiring a driver's license or state ID on absentee ballots, enacted by the Legislature in early April, will be overridden by federal law if the Senate agrees to the House-approved bill. Under H.R. 1, the state would revert to a signature verification measure on absentee ballots from the newly enacted voter ID requirements. However, this time around it would be a highly partisan verification process, writes former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli in RealClearPolitics. 

“H.R. 1 puts forth a new standard," he wrote "In order to reject a ballot based on an unverifiable or incorrect signature, both judges would have to agree that the signature on the ballot is questionable. Since the standard operating procedure in most localities is that two judges be present, H.R. 1 essentially states that the authorization of only one judge is needed to approve signatures, regardless of how they compare with the signatures on file."

He continued, "This failure of election mechanics opens the door to a partisan veto built into the process. H.R. 1 would devastate the effectiveness of signature verification, as regardless of any issues with signatures – no matter how clear or evident – either party could choose to verify any amount of dubious signatures.”

The old Georgia law required that voters be "promptly notified" if their ballot is rejected due to signatures not matching. The voter was given three days to produce and ID, and an affidavit to prove the ballot was theirs.

The new law, enacted in March, was criticized by progressives as voter suppression. But Joe Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation that “overall, the Georgia law is pretty much in the mainstream and is not regressive or restrictive. The availability of absentee ballots and early voting is a lot more progressive than what’s in the blue states.”

The Heritage Foundation validated Snead’s assessment by comparing Georgia’s law to regulations in other states.