Senate Bill 189, which passed both chambers and is headed to the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp, allows a presidential candidate who has obtained ballot access in at least 20 states or territories to appear on the Georgia ballot. This change could help independent candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who faces strong headwinds and is currently moving toward locking down ballot access in six states. The bill also changes what addresses may legally be used to register to vote. If signed into law, SB189 will require people who are homeless and without a permanent address to use the county registrar’s office as their address to vote. It would also prohibit the use of post office boxes as mailing addresses for a voter registration. Individuals who leave the state “temporarily,” defined in the legislation as having the intention of returning, will not be subject to having their registration purged from the voter roll unless they register to vote in another jurisdiction or cancel their registration in another state in the event they changed it when they moved. SB189 also expands the ability to challenge voter registrations that could potentially be on the voter roll illegally. The board of registrars would be able to consider purging voter registrations if “probable cause” exists, including (but not limited to):Georgia lawmakers have passed new legislation to make multiple changes to the state’s electoral processes, including making it easier to clean voter rolls.
No challenges to names on voter rolls may be made within 45 days of an election. Under the new law, official tabulations of ballot scanners will be based solely on the text portion of the ballot, where the voter marks their selection, rather than any part that uses a QR code or bar code. SB189 allows county election superintendents to begin tabulating absentee ballots after 7 a.m. on Election Day, provided those absentee ballots have been verified and accepted by the Monday prior to the day of the primary, election, or runoff. Ballots are required to be tabulated and the results reported no later than 8 p.m. on the day of the election, or within one hour of the polls closing, whichever is later. The legislation also increases requirements for securing absentee ballots prior to tabulation. The Secretary of State, with the changes under this new law, will create a pilot program for auditing paper ballots that uses optical character recognition technology to verify the “human-readable text portion of the ballot.” These audits will ensure that an actual person completed the absentee ballot. SB189 also provides that at least 29 days must elapse between the calling for a special primary, or special election, and when that special primary or election is held. Almost immediately, following the bill’s passage, advocacy groups criticized the legislation and promised legal challenges. “What we’re saying is that it should be easy for every citizen to vote,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “That’s what makes this a democracy. And all of these tricks to try to create barriers for Georgia citizens to have a voice in their government is anti-democracy.” The ACLU of Georgia has already vowed to bring legal challenges. “Access to the ballot is at the heart of our democracy. This election ‘Frankenbill’ violates the National Voter Registration Act. We are committed to protecting Georgia voters. If the governor signs this bill, we will see him in court,” Young wrote in a statement after the bill’s passage.
