Peach Tree Times

An election integrity bill signed into law in March in Georgia that seeks to expand voting access has been criticized for doing just the opposite by Democratic leaders as they suggest a countermove.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 202 on March 26 despite criticism from President Joe Biden that the bill is “an un-American law to deny people the right to vote,” according to his statement on the bill. Among several aspects, Senate Bill 202 institutes a voter identification requirement, forms stricter rules for absentee voting and expands access to early voting, the bill’s text said.

Biden urged congressional passage of For the People Act of 2021 (House Resolution 1), a countermove that, in part, would ban state voter ID laws, “forcing states to allow individuals to vote without an ID” and “mandate no-fault absentee ballots,” the conservative Heritage Foundation said. The House passed H.R. 1 March 3, and it is in the Senate for consideration, govtrack said.

“[SB 202] adds rigid restrictions on casting absentee ballots that will effectively deny the right to vote to countless voters,” Biden said in the March 26 statement. “And it makes it a crime to provide water to voters while they wait in line – lines Republican officials themselves have created by reducing the number of polling sites across the state, disproportionately in black neighborhoods. This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end.”

SB 202 doesn’t compare to Jim Crow laws, Kemp said in a news release. Brutal, legalized racial segregation through state and local statutes constituted Jim Crow laws, which were in place from the post-Civil War era until 1968, the History Channel's website said. Jim Crow measures denied blacks the right to vote, receive an education or to have jobs.

“There is nothing Jim Crow about requiring a photo or state-issued ID to vote by absentee ballot,” Kemp said in the news release.

SB 202 is another step to ensure Georgians that their elections are “secure, accessible and fair,” Kemp said in remarks on YouTube after the bill’s signing March 26. 

“We quickly began working with the House and Senate on further reforms to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat," he said. "The bill I signed into law today does just that. First and foremost, SB 202 replaces a signature match process with a state-issued ID requirement to request and submit an absentee ballot. When voting in person in the state of Georgia, you must have a photo ID. It only makes sense for the same standard to apply to absentee ballots as well.” 

According to the text of the bill itself, Georgia’s SB 202 institutes a voter ID requirement, provides free voter ID, promotes ballot drop box security, forms stricter rules for absentee voting, expands access to early voting—promoting robust protections of election integrity.

A Rasmussen Reports survey found in March 2021 that 75% of likely U.S. voters support voters the requirement to show photo identification before being allowed to vote, and 21% were against the requirement.

In comments on SB 202 on LegiScan, Pam Barrett said voter ID should be mandatory because no can be trusted.

“I received three mail-in ballots and had only requested one,” Barrett said. “One of the ballots had indications of being affiliated with a political party in the 'fine print' and did not allow for a vote of any other.”

In 2019, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation allowing early voting eight days before an election in an act described by Cuomo’s office as the beginning of a “process of bringing New York state's voting laws into the 21st Century,” a news release said.

There will be more than 15 days of early voting in Georgia’s 2022 election cycle, CBS News said.

“There will be at least 17 days of early voting, starting on the Monday that is 22 days before Election Day until the Friday before an election,” CBS News said.

Several Northeastern states limit the time in which opponents can rally a base through policies that prevent most early voting, The Atlantic said. Plus, many Democratic states in New England make it harder for minorities to vote, although Biden compares SB 202 to Jim Crow laws, a contradiction that “smacks of hypocrisy,” Russell Berman wrote in The Atlantic.

Voter suppression in the United States doesn’t exist, Hans A. von Spakovsky, said in an election integrity commentary for the Heritage Foundation.

“There was higher turnout among all races in 2020 when compared to the 2016 election. Black Americans turned out at 63%, compared to 60% in 2016,” von Spakovsky said.

Opponents of the new Georgia law have more concerns about future elections, not the 2020 vote.