";s:4:"text";s:24312:"It shrinks the window for voters to request mail ballots. The context is important of course: This is playing out in the wake of Georgia’s swing to Democrats in the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing baseless charges of fraud from the Trump campaign and its allies. It’s also correct that there are ways in which the law expands voter access, particularly in ways that will be visible in rural areas. Another reason is that convenience voting may not be as convenient for lower-turnout voters, who essentially decide overall turnout. Not only might it mitigate the already limited effect of restricting mail voting, but it might even outweigh it. A final reason is that voting restrictions may backfire by angering and energizing Democratic voters. Another provision that has somehow aroused all sorts of anger in the media is the one barring political campaigners from bribing voters with money, food, water, etc., within 150 feet of a polling place. NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta’s Truist Park, a response Friday to Georgia enacting a new law last month restricting voting rights. That law, passed last week, has been condemned by Democrats as voter suppression, or even as tantamount to Jim Crow. A few key Georgia Republicans, including Lt. Gov. The study used a novel approach: The researchers compared the turnout among 65-year-olds in Texas, who were eligible to vote by mail without an excuse, with 64-year-olds in Texas, who weren’t. Georgia Takes Center Stage With New Battles Over Voting Rights. There’s also a provision that requires large precincts with long lines to add machines, add staff or split the precinct. This law’s restrictions on handing out water in line, for instance, may do more to mobilize Democrats than to stop them from voting. New identification requirements. What the Georgia voting law really does. Perhaps the disenfranchisement of even a single voter merits outrage and opposition, especially if the law is passed on dubious or even fabricated grounds, and with Jim Crow mass disenfranchisement as a historical backdrop. Low-turnout voters probably aren’t thinking about how they’ll vote a month ahead of the election, when they’ll need to apply for an absentee ballot. “You can criticize the bill for many things, but I don’t think you can criticize it for reducing the hours you can vote,” University of Georgia political scientist Charles S. Bullock III said, according to the report. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. Republicans say this is aimed at stopping outside groups from influencing voters; Democrats say it’s supposed to make it harder for people to wait in long lines, particularly on hot or cold days. Backlash from the corporate world has been growing, and on Friday Major League Baseball announced it was moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the law. Minor changes in voting access can overshadow larger issues, including the kinds of potentially significant provisions in the Georgia law that empower the State Legislature. They have to be indoors, which critics say make them less accessible and could lead to crowds where voters are already congregated. Georgia’s Republican legislature enacted legislation cutting back on voting by mail, including a new voter ID requirement, and interfering with local election boards, among other provisions. In the end, turnout exceeded expectations. A block on Sunday voting. But maybe not. (You could make a counterintuitive argument that making absentee voting harder is worse for Democrats than eliminating it altogether, and that Democrats might be better off discouraging people from mail voting to avoid unnecessary ballot rejections of people who could have successfully voted in person.). Almost everyone who cares enough to vote will brave the inconveniences of in-person voting to do so, whether that’s because the inconveniences aren’t really so great, or because they care enough to suffer them. Voting rights advocates say a new Georgia law strikes at … Cutting in the other direction is the gratuitous and probably ineffectual limitation on handing out food and water to people standing in line to vote. And none of this had any discernible negative effect on the Democrats, who of course did better than they did in the general. The Democratic share of voters appeared to tick up by two-tenths of a percentage point — enough to decide a very close election. Open carry allowed: No: Yes: Carry permit holders must carry their handgun concealed. This provision — which replaces a signature match previously used to confirm voters’ identities — is one of the most controversial because critics say it is likely to disproportionately affect Black voters. Democrats said the law is full of “voter suppression tactics,” and a response to Georgia turning blue in the 2020 election, a result that Trump falsely claimed was due to fraud. How is it possible that something like eliminating no-excuse absentee mail voting, a method beloved by millions of voters, wouldn’t materially affect turnout or election results? It also supposes a certain level of interest. The methods ensure that every high-interest voter has many opportunities to vote, without doing quite as much to draw less engaged voters to the polls. The new Georgia law, however, leaves in place no-excuse absentee voting, although it shortens the window to apply for ballots to 67 days. For decades, reformers have assumed that the way to increase turnout is to make voting easier. It could plausibly even increase turnout. It empowers the State Legislature to play a larger role in election administration. You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly. The law also makes it harder to request and return an absentee ballot, restricting the period when people can apply for one and limiting the number of drop boxes where voters can return such a ballot in person. Kemp and other defenders of the law say what’s on the books now is in line with voting laws, even in blue states. The state’s new Republican-crafted law is set to restrict voting access in ways that Democrats and voting rights groups say will have an outsize impact on … Brian Kemp (R) says his state's new voting law expands ballot access — and in very limited ways, it does. Background checks on private gun sales required: Yes: Yes: Must be through a licensed … The democracy reform bill H.R. But setting aside intent, it does mean that many such voting provisions, like that in Georgia, are unlikely to have a huge effect on turnout or Democratic chances. The fifty . Georgia’s Election Law, and Why Turnout Isn’t Easy to Turn Off, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/upshot/georgia-election-law-turnout.html. This proposal was seen as directly targeting Black voters, who often vote as part of church-run “souls to the polls” efforts that take place on Sundays. Someone thinking about this is probably a high-turnout voter. Georgia’s Voter Law Is Called ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ for a Reason Republicans today know that blocking access to the ballot has always relied on legal maneuvering and political schemes. Kemp has been arguing publicly that in rural counties that didn’t have drop boxes in previous elections, this is an improvement (drop boxes weren’t allowed in Georgia at all before 2020, and not all counties had them even during the pandemic). said last week the law amounts to “Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” calling it “un-American” and “sick.”, The long history of suppressing Black votes. Voters don’t have to provide a copy of the identification, but could for example provide a driver’s license number, social security number or other acceptable identification. And it’s possible the law is intended to do exactly what progressives fear: reshape the electorate to the advantage of Republicans, soon after an electoral defeat, by making it harder to vote. The evidence suggests it does not. The New York Times analyzed the state’s new 98-page voting law and identified 16 key provisions that will limit ballot access, potentially confuse … “In Georgia, we have a minimum of 17, with two additional Sundays that are optional in our state. It shortens the runoff period. Depending on how this is rolled out, it could be a big win for voters in Georgia’s urban areas, who have dealt with some of the longest lines in the country. That’s the finding of decades of political science research on advance, early and absentee voting. The number of Election Day voters was higher than it was in the general election, as many people who might have voted early if it weren’t for Christmas or New Year’s Day now turned out on Election Day. People must have a qualifying form of identification to vote by mail. The perception that voting laws have existential stakes for democracy or the political viability of the two parties has made bipartisan compromise extremely difficult. And that makes them less likely to take advantage of advance voting options like no-excuse early voting, which requires them to think about the election early and often: to submit an application, fill out a ballot and return it. Maybe runoff turnout would have been higher with the same early voting opportunities as in the general. Brian Kemp was right to shoot back by citing Biden’s “obvious” failure to read the legislation. That’s actually a little bit less strict than some of the strictest voter ID requirements in the country, where photo ID is required. The implication, though, is that nearly every person will manage to vote if sufficiently convenient options are available, even if the most preferred option doesn’t exist. But proponents of the law say voters simply don’t need the 180 days they used to have to request ballots – and that moving up the cutoff date makes it less likely voters will receive ballots too late to get them back in time to be counted. Experts fear US could be next . The other important context: The long history of suppressing Black votes. Instead of a minimum of three weeks of early voting in runoffs, early voting in runoffs will be held in a single Monday-Friday period. And among those are blue states including Delaware, Washington and Connecticut. I want to see this on MSNBC. I'm curious to see if any other news networks will highlight this comparison between Georgia's and New York's voting laws? It essentially limits the number of drop boxes in each county to one per early-voting site, or one for every 100,000 voters in the county, whichever number is smaller. (It’s worth noting that many states don’t count these ballots at all, and there were only around 10,000 total provisional ballots in Georgia in the last election, including those cast in the right precinct.). Many outright disenfranchise voters, even if only in small numbers. That doesn’t mean the Georgia law or other such laws are without consequence. 1, for instance, would do quite a bit to expand voting access but relatively little to protect against partisan interference in election administration. That makes the Georgia election law’s effort to curb long lines potentially quite significant. The Georgia law doesn’t come anywhere close to eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, unlike what the political scientists tested in Texas. While the number of drop boxes is so limited it might not make a huge difference for voters, Kemp is correct that the law for the first time codifies requirements for a minimum number of drop boxes in each county. A historic restriction? This applies specifically to populous precincts, mostly in urban areas. The new voting law still permits polling places to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and as long as you are in line by 7 p.m. then you can still vote, the Post confirmed. And yet the law’s voting provisions are unlikely to significantly affect turnout or Democratic chances. Of more concrete but still limited importance is a rule that makes it harder for people to cast a provisional ballot if they show up at the wrong precinct. The Georgia law adds a photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail, cuts the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot and … Limits on drop boxes. Why all the lies about Georgia’s new voting law? Georgia Gov. In the final account, it will probably be hard to say whether it had any effect on turnout at all. Other … There are consequences to misunderstanding the stakes of changing voting laws. New York Daily News | Mar 31, 2021 at 5:09 PM . “I’m telling you the truth about this bill,” Kemp insisted on WABE radio, Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, on Tuesday. Georgia’s new voter ID requirement for mail ballots is one interesting comparison point. That provision has uncertain but potentially substantial effects, depending on what the Legislature might do in the future. An additional day of early voting in most rural counties. Georgia Gov. A more rigorous study by political scientists at Stanford found that no-excuse mail voting might have increased turnout by a whopping 0.02 percent in the 2020 election. The Georgia law doesn’t come anywhere close to eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, unlike what the political scientists tested in Texas. The full text of the Georgia bill is here, but the bill’s major effects can be boiled down to a few points: The law makes absentee voting harder. Election officials are permitted to set up water stations — but they’re not required to do so. Similarly, Joe Biden improved over Hillary Clinton’s performance by three percentage points in the states that added it, compared with 2.9 points in the states that did not. That shouldn’t be a huge surprise: Even universal vote by mail, in which every registered voter is automatically sent a mail ballot (as opposed to every voter having an opportunity to apply for one), increases turnout by only about 2 percent with no discernible partisan advantage. A bill backed by the Georgia GOP that will overhaul election protocols in the state was signed into law Thursday. Liberals are not suddenly outraged by it. Civil rights groups sue Georgia over new voting law 5 hrs ago. The new law allows state officials to take over local elections work in response to alleged mismanagement. The legislation includes new restrictions on voting … Democracy, after all, depends on the consent of the loser. Runoffs would be held four weeks after an initial election, instead of the nine weeks that had been in place for federal elections in the last few years. The fight over the new Georgia election law is only the latest example. In other ways, it restricts access, just as its critics claim. They do not inherently make it harder for people to vote by restricting whether or how they can vote. Andrew Cuomo signed three new laws that create more flexibility for New York voters this fall. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time. Geoff Duncan (R), opposed the idea — and it was ultimately removed from the bill Kemp signed into law. A minimum number of drop boxes is guaranteed. Opponents of Georgia’s new elections law call it a blatant attack on voting rights, aimed specifically at suppressing the minority vote that helped propel Joe Biden’s presidential win and gave Democrats two critical seats in the U.S. Senate. Registration of firearm : Yes: No: It is illegal to possess an unregistered handgun. Republican lawmakers in the state — as many of their counterparts across the country have — quickly began drafting a bill critics say is a political reaction from a party beholden to Trump. Dem Abuses Prompted Georgia Voting Law’s Food-and-Drink Rule Ryan Mills And despite outrage from the Left, the state only ‘copied’ a similar ban already in place in New York. It removes the secretary of state as chair of the state board of elections and allows the Legislature to appoint a majority of the board’s members, including the chair. There’s a real — and bipartisan — misunderstanding about whether making it easier or harder to vote, especially by mail, has a significant effect on turnout or electoral outcomes. The preservation of no-excuse absentee voting means Georgia isn’t among the most restrictive states in terms of mail-in voting. The virtue of bipartisanship is often and understandably dismissed as naïve, but voting laws are a rare case where bipartisanship has value of its own. Kemp cited Biden’s home state of Delaware in a Fox News interview Thursday, pointing to the ways Georgia allows more access. Someone might think: There’s no way I’m waiting a half-hour in line to vote for dogcatcher. One recent study even theorized that the Supreme Court’s decision to roll back elements of the Voting Rights Act didn’t reduce Black turnout because subsequent efforts to restrict voting were swiftly countered by efforts to mobilize Black voters. If we leave aside the administrative provisions and the question of intent, the core question on voter suppression is to what extent does reducing voting options — like early voting in the runoffs or mail voting in general — reduce turnout and Democratic chances? So let’s look at what it does and doesn’t do. A limit on the number of ballot drop boxes during early voting. It allows counties to choose when their early-voting locations are open, for a minimum of eight hours a day between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. More resources for precincts so lines don’t get too long. Rather than allowing voters to request ballots six months from Election Day, the new law says voters can start requesting ballots 78 days out; counties can begin sending ballots to voters just 29 days before Election Day, rather than the previous 49 days. Georgia Republicans actually passed a bill in the state Senate a few weeks ago that would have banned no-excuse absentee voting, one of the most criticized — but not uniformly agreed upon — GOP proposals in the lead-up to the final bill. The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. In 2020, four states required a reason beyond the coronavirus pandemic to vote by mail. New voter ID requirements. The state’s old system required a cumbersome — and some said unreliable — signature-matching process, and the new law replaces it with a requirement for a driver’s license, Social Security card or one of a number of other forms of ID prescribed by the state. With Post wires. But Georgia Gov. Yet surprisingly, expanding voting options to make it more convenient hasn’t seemed to have a huge effect on turnout or electoral outcomes. In those cases, the state is required to either form new precinct locations to ease the strain or beef up the existing polling locations’ capacities to handle large numbers of voters. Georgia’s new law comes amid a national movement among Republican-controlled state legislatures fueled by false claims the 2020 election was stolen to … New York City mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang on Friday said a restrictive voting law passed in Georgia highlights the need to protect democracy as he touted New York’s ranked-choice system. “It expands access.”. 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