Peach Tree Times

The Honest Elections Project (HEP), a voter integrity advocacy group, filed an amicus brief in late June in combined lawsuits challenging election reform legislation, SB 202, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in March 2021. HEP’s brief focuses on buffer zones surrounding polling places established under the law to prevent solicitation of voters.

“Protecting the sanctity of polling places prevents administrative confusion, electioneering, and voter intimidation,” HEP Executive Director Jason Snead told the Peach Tree Times. “No group should be able to give gifts to voters who are about to vote, and laws stopping that practice are common. That is why Georgia’s law should stand, and we argue that the Plaintiff’s motions should be denied.”

One of the lawsuits cited in the brief was filed in late May against Kemp by the Sixth District of the African American Methodist Episcopal Church. It asks for a preliminary injunction to lift restrictions on line relief.

“This would allow non-partisan voting rights organizations to continue giving free food and water to voters in line, as they did before S.B. 202,” the Legal Defense Fund stated. “The motion claims line relief restrictions violate the free speech rights of those handing out line relief and expressing gratitude to Georgians for voting, in addition to placing undue barriers on voters.”

The HEP brief said that drawing a line to distinguish what constitutes voter intimidation and a “helpful gesture” is avoided.

The anti-solicitation provision also addresses another issue, the brief said.

“…if third-party organizations are going to interact with voters, who will supervise the interactions? As one election administrator stated, it is “impossible for the poll managers, workers, and watchers to monitor what is being said by these groups as they perform their ‘line warming.’ On a busy election day with scores of third-party organizations and even more voters in and around a polling place, election administrators simply cannot supervise everything.”

The other legal action cited in the HEP brief is Georgia State Conference of the NAACP’s lawsuit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The NAACP alleges that SB 202 violates the Voter Rights Act of 1965, and places restrictions on minority voters.

Yet, the May 24 Georgia primary elections showed record voter turnout, with Black voters making up a higher percentage of voters in the state before the law was passed, according to Fox News.

“The turnout we’re seeing In Georgia is the finest rebuttal possible to the claims of ‘voter suppression’ that were made repeatedly over the last year,” Snead said for an earlier story. “Put simply, there is not, and never was, any validity to the argument that SB 202 was Jim Crow” -- a claim made by President Joe Biden after Kemp signed SB 202 into law.