Georgia House Passes S.B. 202 Elections Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Bill 202, an elections bill that Georgia Republicans added a 93-page surprise substitution to last week, passed the Georgia House on Thursday. Rep. Barry Fleming (R) added the enormous substitution to the original two-page bill before a key committee hearing last week, surprising voting advocates and Democratic lawmakers. The substitution carries over pages and pages of voter repression language from two other pending bills in the Georgia Legislature — Senate Bill 241 and House Bill 531 — in an attempt to jam through Republican voter suppression policies.
S.B. 202 would impose new absentee ID requirements, add limitations to drop box usage and more. State Rep. Rhonda Burnough (D), who voted against the bill, fought back against Republican lies that their proposals would improve access to the ballot: “You can say it however you want, but at the end of the day, changing this is going to make voting worse than what it has been, and it’s going to limit access. The results will speak for themselves when we have our first election.”
The bill now returns to the state Senate for final approval of its new substitutions then heads to the governor’s desk.