Georgia Senate President Introduces Bill to Ban Drop Boxes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, President Pro Tempore of the Georgia state Senate, Butch Miller (R), introduced Senate Bill 325, which would ban the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in Georgia. With increased mail-in voting during the 2020 elections, states expanded drop boxes as a secure and easy way to return a ballot. Notably, in Georgia during the 2020 election, drop boxes were used more frequently in Democratic-leaning metro areas than rural Republican areas and in four counties in Atlanta, more than half of the absentee ballots cast in 2020 were returned via drop box. Georgia’s voter suppression law, Senate Bill 202, which passed in March, already imposes significant restrictions on the number of drop boxes in each county.
“Removing drop boxes will help rebuild the trust that has been lost,” wrote Miller in a press release, calling drop boxes the “weak link” against fraud, a claim widely debunked by election experts. Additionally, Miller is running as a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2022. Miller’s proposed bill fits into a larger pattern of GOP candidates bolstering their platforms with repeatedly-debunked claims of voter fraud.