Thoughts for the evening: Georgia Law – what’s really there?
I’ll leave the border crisis alone tonight, despite the new report that Texas Rangers are forcing their way into one of the Fed-controlled migrant juvenile facilities today after multiple reports of understaffing and now rapes and mal-nutrition.
I’ll also leave alone the new Moodys report on Joe’s “America Jobs Plan” – the “infrastructure” plan – where Joe and Pete are claiming 19 million jobs to be created. In fact, Moodys (now backed by other analysis) is stating they may see 2.7 million jobs from this, and the other jobs are happening as part of the post-lockdown recovery. Over $833K will be spent per job created, incidentally. Do the math.
So, let’s talk Georgia:
We keep hearing “Jim Crow 2.0” from Biden and his surrounding team, including Stacey Abrams (the worst spreader of disinformation in Georgia in decades – and she’s raised over $100M to keep spreading it). But after the Washington Post and all their political and legal experts gave him 4 Pinocchio’s (the worst rating you could get) for lying about the law, Biden and his staff doubled and tripled down on the rhetoric… which tells me Joe is being fed this info from his staff on his pocket note cards he talks about being prepared for him every day. But instead of just saying that, let’s look at the law:
- It EXPANDS early voting, and adds at least 2 Saturdays and options Sundays. Suppression? No.
- It does NOTHING to cut voting hours, and requires 9a-5p, but also allows 7a-7p, determined by each county. Suppression? No.
- It requires state ID number be given for absentee ballot request. BUT – if the voter doesn’t have one they can provide a photocopy of a different form of ID. AND Georgia has set aside money to give those people free state ID cards if desired. Suppression? No.
- They no longer require a signature match, with the ID requirement in place for the absentee request. Suppression? No.
- Drop boxes are now mandated – they were not before – to at least 1 box in every county (appropriate for extremely rural counties). More in larger metro counties. 1 box per 100,000 voters. This law does place rules on when those boxes may be accessed (e.g., to eliminate box tampering risk). BTW – before 2020 Georgia had NO drop boxes at all. Suppression? No.
- Ballots can now be requested 78 days before an election; previously it was 180 days. So, they can’t request 6 months out, but instead almost 3 months out. Suppression? No.
- State officials cannot send unsolicited ballot requests to voters. Third parties still can, however. Suppression? No.
- Food and drink: Georgia – like virtually every other state, already prohibits campaigning (materials, etc.,) within 150 feet of polling site and 25 feet of voters in line. The law was expanding to also including handing out “gifts” – including food and water. HOWEVER – self-service stations and poll site workers are NOT prohibited from doing this. Note: In the summer primaries, some lines were 2 hours long, and hydration was an issue. In November, however, average wait times were 2-3 minutes. Suppression? No.
- The state election board is now selected by the general assembly, and is no longer chaired by the Secretary of State. The chair (and the board) must be non-partisan, not serving in the government, not actively participating in a party or organization, and not donated to any campaign – both while serving and for two years prior to serving. Suppression? No.
- The new law speeds up reporting – since it took 10 days to report in 2020. It allows processing (not tabulation) of received ballots 15 days before the general election. Results must be reported much faster or face investigations. Suppression? No.
- A new voter complaint hotline is established for illegal activity, intimidation, etc. Suppression? No.
- Run-off elections are now 28 days out, not 2 months. Suppression? No.
- Mail ballots are sent 29 days out from election, not 49 as in the past. Suppression? No. 4 weeks is plenty of time. Suppression? No.
There is more, but the net out of this bill is that it formalizes rules put in for covid in 2020, and does tighten some rules to ensure access is expanded. So, when Joe said (among several other things) that “voting had to end at 5pm” – flat out wrong. Or “can’t give people food or water” – flat out wrong. Etc.
Oh – and don’t forget (or maybe you didn’t know this): Delta and Coke BOTH provided feedback AND approved the law text before it was passed – in its final form. Only after Ms. Abrams went on a rampage did they suddenly reverse course.
Read the law, folks. Just read it. There is no – zero – Jim Crow 2-point-anything in this. I know a lot of you like the president and want to believe all of this, so don’t take my word for it. Go read for yourself.
