Election Integrity Act of 2021
The Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as the Georgia Senate Bill 202, is a law in the U.S. state of Georgia overhauling elections in the state. It replaced signature matching requirements on absentee ballots with voter identification requirements, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, expands in-person early voting, bars officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, increases voting stations or staff and equipment where there have been long lines, makes it a crime for outside groups to give free food or water to voters waiting in line, gives the Georgia General Assembly greater control over election administration, and shortens runoff elections, among other provisions.
The bill has generated significant controversy, described by critics as unprecedented and widespread Republican-led anti-democratic voting restrictions, with President Joe Biden labeling the bill "Jim Crow in the 21st century". Georgia governor Brian Kemp called criticism of the bill "disingenuous and completely false", and has argued that it differs little from voting laws in most other states. In June 2021, the Department of Justice sued Georgia over the law, which it alleges is racially discriminatory. In October 2023, a federal judge upheld multiple provisions of the law, citing a lack of evidence that the law is racially discriminatory.
Early voting turnout surged in the 2022 election cycle that followed the law's passage, with debate over the impact of the law on early voting. After the 2022 election cycle, polling from the University of Georgia found that 99% of Georgia voters did not have issues voting.
Key provisions
Absentee voting
Ballot drop boxes
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in Georgia allowed the use of ballot drop boxes in the 2020 United States presidential election. The Election Integrity Act codifies the permanent use of drop boxes in general elections and mandates at least one box per county but also places some restrictions on their use. Most notably, it limits additional drop boxes to either one per 100,000 registered voters or one per voting location, whichever is fewer; this caps the number of drop boxes in the four counties making up the core of the Atlanta metro area at 23 or fewer, depending on how many early-voting sites the counties provide, which was significantly fewer than the 94 drop boxes the counties used in the 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia. It also requires drop boxes to be located indoors in early voting locations and mandates that they only be accessible when those polling locations are open, and closes drop boxes four days before Election Day, when turning absentee ballots into the US Post Office begins running the risk they will arrive at election offices late.Voter ID and removal of signature match
The bill requires absentee voters to provide their driver's license or state ID number, last four digits of their Social Security number, or a photo copy of an accepted form of identification when requesting an absentee ballot, such as a utility bill. This replaced requirements for absentee voters to provide their signatures, which were verified by signature matching conducted by poll workers.Absentee ballot requests
The act shortens the amount of time voters have to request absentee ballots by over half, pushing the beginning of the time period voters can request an absentee ballot from six months before the election to three months before, and moving back the deadline to request an absentee from four days before Election Day to eleven days before. It also bars state and local officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request applications to registered voters.Early in-person voting
The bill mandates three weeks of in-person early voting, including two Saturdays and the option of including two Sundays. This will expand early voting in rural counties. It also bans the use of mobile voting centers outside of declared disasters, which were utilized in Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election.Legislative control of election administration
The bill gives the Georgia General Assembly greater control over election administration. Ordinarily, important administrative decisions like ballot disqualification and certification of results are made by county boards of elections. Under the new law, the State Board of Elections is empowered to replace county boards with an administrator chosen at the state level if the State Board deems a county board to be performing poorly. It simultaneously gives the Georgia General Assembly greater control over the State Board by replacing the Georgia Secretary of State as chair of the board, who is made an ex-officio, nonvoting member, with an official appointed by the legislature; the legislature already appoints two of the five seats on the board, so under the new law the legislature appoints a majority of the board. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this enables "state takeovers of local election offices", including deciding which ballots should be disqualified, and could "change the outcome of future elections, especially if they're as hotly contested as the 2020 presidential election between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump".The provision has been linked to unsuccessful attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia by Republicans, especially in heavily Democratic counties like Fulton County. In that election, many Republican state lawmakers made unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud, claimed that the State Board of Elections had exceeded its authority in approving certain new rules to make voting more accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, pushed for election results to be overturned, and attempted to call an emergency special session to award the state's electoral votes in the Electoral College to Trump. Writing for Vox, Zack Beauchamp commented that the bill "allows Republicans to seize control of how elections are administered in Fulton County and other heavily Democratic areas, disqualifying voters and ballots as they see fit." It has also been alleged that the provision removing the Secretary of State from the Board of Elections is targeted at Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State who oversaw the 2020 election in Georgia and famously rebuffed attempts by Trump and state lawmakers to overturn Georgia's election results.
Runoff and primary elections
In Georgia, Senate elections employ a runoff system in which the top two candidates go to a second-round runoff election if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the first round. Additionally, prior to the passage of the Election Integrity Act, U.S. Senate special elections used nonpartisan blanket elections, also referred to as jungle elections, in which all candidates, regardless of political party, ran against each other in the first round. The Election Integrity Act shortens the runoff election from nine weeks after the first round to four weeks, which has the effect of reducing early voting for the second round election to just a few days, and replaces the nonpartisan blanket election in special elections with a standard partisan election preceded by party primary elections. It would also prohibit new voters from being registered for the runoff. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, these provisions have the effect of making it more likely that the leading candidate in the first round will prevail in the runoff.The changes have been linked to the 2020 United States Senate elections in Georgia, in which the Democratic candidates unseated the incumbent Republicans, delivering a narrow Senate majority to the Democratic Party. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, had these changes been in place for the 2020 elections, they may have made it more likely that the Republican incumbents would have held their seats. In particular, shortened runoffs would have shortened early voting, which benefited Democrats in the 2020 Senate races; and no nonpartisan blanket elections in the special election would have prevented the protracted intra-party battles between the leading Republican candidates Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins, which diverted energy away from campaigning against Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock.
Long voting lines
In Georgia, the number and location of polling places is established by county officials. Long voting lines have been a problem in Georgia and they are most common in poor, urban areas, which tend to vote more heavily for the Democratic Party. The bill makes efforts to reduce long lines at voting stations. County officials in charge of precincts with more than 2,000 voters that had waited longer than an hour in the 2020 elections will be required to either open another voting station or add more staff, equipment, or both to the existing station. Poll workers will be allowed to work in counties where they do not reside.Providing free food and water
As part of a broader ban on giving out money or gifts to voters, Section 33 of the act makes it illegal to provide free food or water to people waiting in line to vote within of polling locations and of voting lines, except that volunteers and election officials are allowed to make available self-service water from an unattended dispenser to voters in line. Critics have argued that the provision disproportionately affects Black voters, who face longer lines on average. Proponents have argued that allowing partisan volunteers to hand out food and water provided an opportunity for illegal campaigning to voters in line. As of August 2023, the prohibition on offering of free food or water within 150 feet of polling locations was upheld, while the prohibition on offerings within 25 feet of voters waiting in line, but over 150 feet from polling locations, was temporarily blocked in court.This law played a key role in the plot of the final season of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm.