Georgia Republicans Trying to Make It Harder to Vote, Again

In yet another move intended to make it harder to vote in Georgia, the Senate Ethics Committee voted 6-5 along party lines for a bill to end automatic voter registration in the state. The committee voted after testimony from Brad Carver, one of the 16 “fake electors” whose attempts to illegally award Georgia’s electoral votes to Donald Trump are still under investigation. 

“Let’s be clear: this bill to end automatic voter registration is a voter suppression bill, period,” said DPG Executive Director Kevin Olasanoye. “Georgia Republicans know full well that when automatic voter registration goes away, Georgia sees a drastic drop in voter registrations– and that is exactly what they want. Republicans are telling us what we already know: they’re terrified of Georgia voters, and they would rather put up barriers to the ballot box than answer to Georgians for their failed policies.”

The bill, Senate Bill 221, also makes it easier for Georgia residents to mount an unlimited number of challenges to the validity of their neighbors’ voter registrations. That policy, passed in the wake of the 2020 election in an effort to mollify Republicans who falsely believe that election was stolen from Donald Trump, has led to lengthy (and costly) state investigations but has yet to reveal evidence of a single incident of voter fraud.
This vote comes on the heels of a host of election-related activity from the Senate Ethics Committee pandering to the conspiracy-theorist fringe of the Republican base—including movement on measures to eliminate QR codes on ballots, ban drop boxes for ballots, shorten the early voting period, and open a (likely unconstitutional) investigation into Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.