Georgia Voting Bill SB 202 Signed Into Law: Read It For Yourself
The Georgia voting bill known as SB 202 is now passed law, and the reaction rages on in the state at the center of 2020’s election debates:
Gov. Brian Kemp quickly signed a vast rewrite of his state’s election rules into law Thursday, SB 202, a Georgia voting bill imposing voter ID requirements, limiting drop boxes and allowing state takeovers of local elections after last year’s close presidential race.
Kemp finalized the bill just over an hour after it cleared the General Assembly, leaving no doubt about its fate amid public pressure against voting restrictions.
Republican lawmakers pushed the legislation through both the House and Senate over the objections of Democratic lawmakers. The legislation passed along party lines in both chambers, with votes of 34-20 in the Senate and 100-75 in the House.
Protesters outside the Capitol said the bill will disenfranchise voters, calling it “Jim Crow 2.0.” State Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, was arrested by state troopers after knocking on Kemp’s office door to try to witness the bill signing. The governor briefly interrupted his prepared remarks as Cannon was forcibly removed from the building by officers.
Supporters of the measure, Senate Bill 202, said it will protect election integrity.
“Significant reforms to our state elections were needed. There’s no doubt there were many alarming issues with how the election was handled, and those problems, understandably, led to a crisis of confidence in the ballot box here in Georgia,” Kemp said after signing the bill.
The election overhaul in a state with a history of voting rights struggles came after the first victory in Georgia by a Democrat in a presidential election since 1992. Then in January, Democrats won two runoffs for the U.S. Senate, giving them control of the chamber.
Read the whole of SB 202 for yourself here:
Editor’s Note: The below is the embossment, the full bill can be read at the above link
SB202
The Big Lie becomes law. I hope the courts toss this quickly and unanimously.Report
And if it doesn’t get tossed, the democrats have 2 years to get as much of their base through the hoops as the can so they can apply a political reckoning.Report
I don’t see Stacy Abrams sitting this one out. I also hate that Black women will have to work triple hard again to save us from ourselves.Report
You’re promoting the “True” Big Lie! This is a Communist Coup and you’re supporting it! Cheating at the Polls is NOT Democracy. ID’s are required for 100’s of actions but not Voting? What’s the big deal if you’re not cheating?Report
George, is that you?Report
Maybe Mrs. George.Report
Good. Now all other states need this reform so the steal wont happen again.Report
YES! America needs to secure it’s Elections and this is a step forward and Beautiful Georgia LEADS THE FIGHT for our Republic! All States MUST follow Georgia’s LEAD! YAY….GEORGIA LEADS “THE SAVE AMERICA” Fight! Wooo Whooo!Report
bro
you’re laying it on way too thick to be a good trollReport
Nobody stole an election, but you sound like the sort that had the contents of your wallet lifted by Trump to “fight” it.
Hope you didn’t lose too much to him. Or to Powell. She grifted millions off of the gullible.Report
For the rest of us, this is an object lesson that the Republican Party, as an institution, cannot be a trusted partner in the American republic. They’ve fulfilled David Frum’s prophesy about abandoning democracy in pursuit of power.
This will get worse before it gets better.Report
Yes it will.
Which means Biden now has a choice – continue to run from the center towards the hard Right looking for “bipartisanship” and keeping the corporate campaign funders happy, or abandon the pretense of bipartisanship and get something (or somethings) done to ameliorate this. Even Synima and Manchin ought to understand that.Report
Oh for God’s sake, Biden isn’t running from the Center towards the Hard Right. He is speaking the ritualistic language required by the traditions of American democracy and Manchin and Sinema’s egos but is pretty much governing without the Republicans at all. Noticed how he didn’t allow any shennigans to prevent the relatively fast passing of the COVID-19 relief bill.Report
I did, but he’s a neoliberal centerist. Has decades of record on that. And on voting rights and other things he hasn’t yet staked a firm position to go liberal.Report
The Democrats are leading a Coup against our Republic! My Trump Hating Socialist supporting sister of 72 years of age finally realized it in January of this year! She will not talk about it but she abandoned her 4000 “Socialist Friends” on Facebook where she spent her day campaigning for Joe Biden!
*Breaking Today: The Former Director of the CDC, “Covid-19 CAME FROM THE WUHON LAB!”
We can work out our differences AFTER we save AmericaReport
I hope John Roberts is proud of himself.Report
I suspect he’s perfectly fine with this sort of thing because he wants legislative solutions so the courts don’t have to dig legislators out of graves of their own making.Report
Today I learned the VRA wasn’t a legislative solution.Report
clarification – legislative solutions he approves of for problems he accepts as valid.Report
So, the honest question, at what point does the GOP finally realize the Reagan coalition is deader than Elvis and actually start making honest-to-DLC pivots? I’d put my marker at some point after Trump passes the mortal coil, given that he’s still holding the party and the media’s dignity by the short and hairies.
Until then, the party will continue to further alienate the median voter and fail to stop Georgia’s migration into becoming Virginia South.Report
If the western states are an indication, they won’t ever make the pivot. After 30 years, California’s Republicans seem to be happy not pivoting. Colorado’s Republicans adopted their own brand of crazy before there was Trump when they started losing. The Big Lie is a convenient sort of crazy for the Arizona Republicans to follow right now; unlike Georgia, it is unlikely that they can pass anything.
Why not? The Republican advantage in the legislature is much smaller than in Georgia, only two seats in both chambers. New districts for the 2022 election will be drawn by an independent commission. The governor is term-limited, not running for the Senate seat in 2022, and already stood up to Trump on their voting system (and got censured by the state party for it). And finally, Arizona is a veto referendum state: if enough people sign petitions within 90 days of passage (5% of the number of ballots cast for governor most recently), the law doesn’t go into effect until approved in the next election. Somehow, putting radical changes to what seems to be a very popular voting system (>80% of Arizonans have signed up for the permanent mail ballot list voluntarily over the years) on the ballot, when voters have passed independent redistricting, higher minimum wage, and recreational marijuana over the screams of the state Republican Party, seems like a really bad idea.
Arizona is a Republican state trifecta. I’m offering even odds that after the 2022 elections it’s a Democratic trifecta.Report