Georgia was a crucial swing state responsible for the Biden-Harris victory in 2020. As significant as the Biden victor, was the surprising victory of two Democratic U.S. Senators in January 2021, giving the Democrats control of the Senate. Without those two victories, McConnell and the Republicans would have retained control of the Senate, a vast difference between what might have been, and what is, for Biden’s legislative agenda.
With that November Democratic victory, President Trump made that now-famous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensberger, asking him to “find enough votes” to swing the victory to Trump. Much to Trump’s anger, Raffensberger refused. He and Governor Kemp after multiple recounts insisted that Biden won. There was no fraud to be found.
Nevertheless, Republican House and Senate members initially refused to accept states’ certification of results, echoing Trump’s insistence of “a stolen election.” Somehow, the same election that gave certain Republican senators unexpected victories, and enabled House Republicans to cut into the Democratic majority, was “stolen from Trump.”
As illogical and unverified as the charge of widespread fraud, the seed was planted. Republican voters across the land bought into the big lie that the election was stolen from Trump. Republican legislatures across the country began using their power to make laws to make it more difficult for those likely to vote Democratic to cast their ballots in future elections. Some 250 bills in 43 states have been introduced, specifically designed and intended to suppress the Democratic vote. These are “justified” under the thinly disguised alibi of “increasing confidence” of the elections.
The diabolic Trump-inspired strategy worked. Hammer home to the public that the election was fraudulent. Follow up with laws specifically designed to suppress the Democratic vote, and “justify” them as responding to public doubt over validity of the elections.
The unexpected Democratic victories in Georgia have motivated the Georgia legislature to rush through a bill notable for its transparent and egregious intent to suppress the African-American vote largely responsible for those victories.
For those of us accustomed to take no longer than fifteen minutes at the most to cast our ballots in city, village, and town halls, the prospect of standing in line for hours to cast a ballot is a world away. Last June, some Georgians had to stand in line for hours in the hot sun to vote. Lines have been longer in districts populated mainly by low-income and minority voters than by voters in whiter and wealthier districts. If that were not flagrant enough, Georgia’s new law makes it a criminal offense to even offer water to voters standing in long lines waiting to vote. This clearly has nothing to do with “preventing fraud.” This transparent tactic to discourage Black votes deserves the outrage of every honorable American who claims to believe in the sanctity of voting rights.
Prior to the 2020 election, Georgia’s Republicans seemed to have no problem with absentee ballots. But with 1.3 million Georgians voting by mail in 2020, a greater share of them Black, it became “necessary” to make it more difficult to vote absentee. The new law includes strict ID requirements. While that may sound innocuous, 200,000 Georgians do not have driver’s licenses.
More egregious are new limitations on ballot drop boxes that ban their widespread deployment—anything to make voting more inconvenient.
A potential harassment device is to allow any individual Georgian to file an unlimited number of challenges to the eligibility of particular voters. This increases the number of opportunities for right wing groups to harass voters and to throw barriers into the certification of elections. Along with this is a fraud hot line that allows people to anonymously complain about allegedly fraudulent behavior at the polls.
A most disturbing provision neglected by media coverage is the diminishing of power of Georgia’s Secretary of State, and handing more power to the legislature in implementing rules on the elections. It removes Raffensberger who stood up to Trump’s attempts to overturn the election from his role as both chair and voting member of the State Board of Elections. The new chair would be appointed by the legislature, making the majority of the board now appointed by the Republican-dominated body. The state board is unilaterally empowered to take over the process of disqualifying ballots across the state.
Of greatest concern is Fulton County, home to a disproportionate number of Black voters, and purported to be a major site of fraud — for which there was no evidence. This new bill would allow Republicans to seize control of how elections are administered in Fulton County and heavily Democratic areas, disqualifying ballots as they see fit.
To see how any of this is even possible we need to review the 2013 Shelby County vs. Holder decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 stipulated that Georgia and other states with a history of voting suppression attain federal approval for proposed changes in voting laws. In that 2013 decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “Times had changed,” and such provisions were no longer needed.
With that, the heart of the 1965 Act was gutted. Immediately following that decision, states not just in the old Confederacy, but throughout the country with Republican legislatures, took that as permission to pass laws to make voting more difficult. That 2013 Supreme Court decision stands along with the Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates to big money in political campaigns as among the most egregious of the conservative Roberts Court.
Will legislation clearly designed to suppress minority and low-income voters backfire, making these voters even more determined to overcome these barriers? We don’t know.
The criminality of handing water to voters standing in line is getting the press coverage. A broader question is “Why should there even be such long lines forcing voters to take hours just to cast a ballot?”
Georgia’s chicanery should alert citizens throughout the nation that other states are following its transparent example to suppress the vote.
— John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Saturdays in the Monroe Times.
