Georgia Senate GOP Introduces New Voter Suppression Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans in the Georgia Senate released their latest elections bill today that would dramatically restrict voting. The bill — Senate Bill 241 — would limit vote by mail in multiple ways, including ending no-excuse absentee voting and requiring a witness signature on mail-in ballots.
S.B. 241 includes many of the same disenfranchising ideas originally proposed in the Georgia House of Representatives’s omnibus elections bill House Bill 531, such as requiring an ID to get an absentee ballot and restricting mobile polling locations.
The bill also directly attacks a signature match consent decree achieved in a voting rights lawsuit early last year. Specifically, a provision of the bill would limit the ability of the Georgia State Elections Board and secretary of state to enter into consent agreements.
S.B. 241 joins a chorus of other voter suppression bills currently before the Georgia State Assembly — a direct reaction to the Republicans’ sweeping losses in the state in 2020. Even the secretary of state’s office acknowledged the cynical motivation behind these bills, saying “At the end of the day many of these bills are reactionary to a three month disinformation campaign that could have been prevented.”