More on the GA Voting Law: Not Pretty & Purposely Designed for GOP to Win

 

Waiting to Vote in Georgia 

(October 2020)

Two ways to vote in GA (2020)

(Trump said: Rigged & fraud & lost 4 times)

Long but excellent article from the NY Times “The Morning” by David Leonhardt – this deals with the new GA voting law. Highlights below from the article – the full article is here.

Make voting harder:

The Georgia law is part of an ongoing effort by the Republican Party to make voting more difficult, mostly because Republicans believe they win when turnout is low. There is no accurate way to describe this effort other than anti-democratic.

I note: They also said so in various remarks.

The Republican Party’s justification (as always) is: “Election integrity and stopping voter fraud.”

However, voter fraud is exceedingly rare. There is no reason to believe it has determined the outcome of a single U.S. election in decades. If anything, the most high-profile recent examples of fraud have tended to involve Republican voters. Yet Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly and falsely claimed otherwise.

In truth, the spate of “election integrity” laws over the past decade are mostly a response to Barack Obama’s presidential victories. They created a consensus, among both parties, that Democrats benefited from high turnout (which may not be true).

Republicans in many states have responded by trying to make voting harder, especially in cities and heavily Black and other minority areas through (1) onerous identification requirements, (2) reduced voting hours, and (3) reduced access to early voting and more.

The new Georgia law largely fits this pattern. That is the response by GA Republican legislators and Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) to their close losses (2 major U.S. Senate seats) in 2020 elections. 

The law (1) reduces hours for absentee voting, (2) increases ID requirements, and (3) limits the distribution of water and food to voters waiting in line.

One provision seems obviously targeted at Atlanta, the Democrats’ most important source of votes: a new limit on absentee-ballot drop boxes. It is likely to reduce the number of drop boxes in metropolitan Atlanta to fewer than 25, from 94 in 2020.

A helpful summary of the GA law is here from the NY Times.

Noteworthy from that site: They analyzed the GA 98-page voting law and identified 16 key provisions that: (1) limit ballot access, (2) confuse voters, and (3) give more power to Republican lawmakers in GA.

For ease, here are those 16 significant changes to voting as written into the new law:

·  Voters will now have less time to request absentee ballots.

·  There are strict new ID requirements for absentee ballots.

·  It’s now illegal for election officials to mail out absentee ballot applications to all voters.

·  Drop boxes still exist … but barely.

·  Mobile voting centers (think an R.V. where you can vote) are essentially banned.

·  Early voting is expanded in a lot of small counties, but probably not in more populous ones.

·  Offering food or water to voters waiting in line now risks misdemeanor charges.

·  If you go to the wrong polling place, it will be (even) harder to vote.

·  If election problems arise, a common occurrence, it is now more difficult to extend voting hours.

·  With a mix of changes to vote-counting, high-turnout elections will probably mean a long wait for results.

·  Election officials can no longer accept third-party funding (a measure that nods to right-wing conspiracy theories).

·  With an eye toward voter fraud, the state attorney general will manage an election hotline.

·  The Republican-controlled legislature has more control over the State Election Board.

·  The secretary of state is removed as a voting member of the State Election Board.

·  The G.O.P.-led legislature is empowered to suspend county election officials.

·  Runoff elections will happen faster — and could become harder to manage.

What will the impact be?

But some Democrats have misrepresented parts of the law — and may be exaggerating its likely effects.

For example: President Biden suggested that the law would close polling places at 5 p.m. It won’t. As is already the law, local governments must keep polling places open until 5 p.m. and can keep them open until 7 p.m.

Note: CNN’s Daniel Dale and The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler have both laid out Biden’s incorrect assertions on that point. “The entire existence of the legislation in question is premised on a pernicious lie.” 

The Bulwark’s Tim Miller wrote: “But for some reason Biden & many other Dems are grossly exaggerating the specifics of what it actually does.” 

In some cases, Democrats appear to be talking about provisions that the Georgia legislature considered but did not include.

What about the impact of the provisions that really are in the law? That’s inherently uncertain.

Nate Cohn argues that the effects will be smaller than many critics suggest with little effect on overall turnout or on election outcomes.

He points out that the law mostly restricts early voting, not Election Day voting. Early voters tend to be the more highly educated and more engaged with politics. They often vote no matter what, be it early or on Election Day. Cohn argues that modest changes to voting convenience — like those in the GA law — have had little to no effect when other states have adopted them.

Of course, Georgia is so closely divided that even a small effect — on, say, turnout in Atlanta — could decide an election.

The law has one other alarming aspect, as both Nate and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Patricia Murphy have noted: “It could make it easier for state legislators to overturn a future election result after votes have been counted.”

Substack’s Matthew Yglesias offers a helpful bit of context: “Georgia’s law is based on a big lie,” he writes – which certainly is worrisome. But the impact is likely to be modest, he also predicts.

The bottom line:

The new GA law is intended to be a partisan power grab. It is an attempt to win elections by changing the rules rather than persuading more voters. It’s inconsistent with the basic ideals of democracy. 

But if its intent is clear, its impact is less so. It may not have the profound effect that its designers hope and its critics fear.

For people worried about the state of American democracy, laws like GA’s are not the biggest problem. The biggest problems are: (1) the Electoral College, (2) the Senate structure, and (3) gerrymandering of House districts. Thus, winning public opinion often isn’t enough to win elections and govern the country.

My 2 cents: I totally agree with much of this fine article and especially part just above this ending: “for people worried… the GOP playbook is ripe with examples of winning at any cost as stated at the beginning of this article: … the ongoing effort by the Republican Party to make voting more difficult. That is mostly because Republicans believe they win when turnout is low.”

Thus, the GOP works to keep the number of DEMS voting low based on their disgust, fear, anger, hype, or false claims in the media – Voilà – the GOP wins as all that comes together for them – and again, while blaming DEMS for election fraud, rigging, and any other word Trump tells them to. 

That is Trump’s M.O. – make no mistake about it. 

He employs a big PR stunt while conning at all levels in the target state audiences. That’s the only way Trump knows how to operate and the only way he has operated his whole adult life.

Thanks for stopping by.