Proposed bills would stick counties with unfunded mandates and complicate election administration; Brian Kemp is already on the record declaring he does not plan to support any election law changes this year
ATLANTA — Today, Fair Fight Action condemned Georgia Republican state legislators’ continued attempts to make harmful, unnecessary changes to election administration and pass the costs on to already budget-stretched local communities. Their latest bills to do so, HB 886 and HB 933, could undermine county election workers, make election administration more difficult, and empower Big Lie conspiracy theorists to destabilize our democracy.
While Brian Kemp and some of his GOP allies promised not to push any more election bills this year, the introduction of these troubling bills suggests otherwise. HB 886 is an unfunded mandate that would cripple county election administration by forcing election workers into complying ad nauseum with unnecessary and burdensome requirements that will likely log-jam election administration and undermine the integrity of elections. County election officials all across Georgia have made it clear that what they need is meaningful help and support from the Georgia Legislature and the Secretary of State to administer elections, not unfunded and unnecessary mandates that make their jobs harder and undermine election administration.
And with conspiracy theorists and Republican legislators continuing their efforts to undermine our elections, HB 933 could lead to an endless parade of bad actors pushing the Big Lie and conducting a flood of sham ballot reviews. With election workers already under attack by conspiracy theorists and state officials alike in Georgia, and in a time when insurrectionists continue to push the Big Lie, HB 993 puts our democracy and our election officials at risk.
“Even as Brian Kemp has gone on the record saying he would not entertain additional election law changes this year, his Georgia Republican allies are embracing the Big Lie and continuing to push their anti-voting agendas in the state legislature in order to codify voter suppression and silence communities of color,” said Fair Fight Action Organizing Director Hillary Holley. “HB 933 and HB 886 are cut from the same cloth as last year’s anti-voting bill SB 202. These bills would continue to place unnecessary financial and administrative burdens on elections workers and local elections boards in an attempt to undermine our democratic institutions. It is time for Georgians to speak up and demand Georgia Republicans stop playing politics with our democracy and instead work to ensure every eligible voter is able to participate in free and fair elections.”
Last year, Georgia was again embarrassed on the national stage after Republicans passed an egregious voter suppression bill, SB 202. According to Mother Jones, “During municipal elections in November, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and ultimately not vote as a result—than in 2020. If that same rejection rate were extrapolated to the 2020 race, more than 38,000 votes would not have been cast in a presidential contest decided by just over 11,000 votes.”
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