Trump DOJ Dismisses Biden-Era Suit Against Georgia’s Election Integrity Law
'Contrary to the Biden Administration's false claims of suppression, Black voter turnout actually increased under SB 202.''Contrary to the Biden Administration's false claims of suppression, Black voter turnout actually increased under SB 202.'Georgia Law Restricting Ballot Traffickers From Filling Out Your Application Goes To Trial
The judge previously ruled that the law was not inappropriately broad and did not violate plaintiffs' freedom of association.Georgia House Guts Bill That Would Have Given Election Board Power To Investigate Secretary Of State
Georgia's GOP-led House derailed a bill that would have given the State Election Board authority to investigate the secretary of state.Biden called Georgia voting law 'Jim Crow.' But data from first day of early voting just upended that narrative.
On the first day of early voting in Georgia, voters in the Peach State smashed the previous record for opening-day early voting in a midterm election.
In the process, voters also smashed the liberal narrative about the election integrity law that Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed into law last year.
What about the law?
President Joe Biden infamously described Georgia's election integrity law as a modern-day Jim Crow law.
"This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act," he said last March.
The law itself, however, does not restrict voting, and it certainly does not promote discrimination. Rather, Georgia lawmakers shored up election integrity by extending early voting, tightening restrictions on absentee ballots to prevent fraud, increasing polling stations and poll workers in high-density areas, and lawfully preventing outside groups from soliciting voters at polling places.
But what happened in Georgia?
On Monday, the first day for early voting in Georgia for the 2022 midterm general election, more than 130,000 voters cast their ballots.
In fact, voter turnout nearly doubled from the last midterm first-day record, which was set in 2018.
\u201cWe have reviewed the turnout yesterday and we did set a midterm 1st day of early voting & we nearly hit the record for a Presidential:\n1st Day of Early Voting by cycle\n2022: 131,318\n2020: 136,739\n2018: 70,849\nThat's an 85% increase from the last midterm. Midterm record! #gapol\u201d— Gabriel Sterling (@Gabriel Sterling) 1666104043
"The numbers clearly illustrate there isn’t any suppression going on. Record turnout in the Primary and record turnout is likely for this midterm as well," said Gabriel Sterling, COO to the Georgia secretary of state.
More from WAGA-TV:
More than 4 million people could vote in the state’s elections this year, and if past patterns hold, more than half are likely to cast ballots before Election Day. Nearly 2.7 million Georgians voted early during the 2020 general election.
This is the first year that Georgians will head to the polls under a new law passed by the Republican-led legislature following the party's defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
Ironically, the news comes just days after Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who is battling Herschel Walker for a U.S. Senate seat, said Georgia's election integrity makes voting more difficult.
"There is no question that SB 202 [the law] makes voting harder — and that is the intent," Warnock claimed in a debate.
Rhetoric aside, voters in Georgia have until Nov. 4 to cast their early-voting ballots, meaning they have at least another 17 days to get to their polling place before Election Day.
Federal judge denies request to block parts of Georgia's election law, for now
A federal judge has denied an attempt by a left-leaning election integrity group to invalidate parts of Georgia's sweeping election law Wednesday, ahead of runoff elections for the state House, the Associated Press reported.
The Coalition for Good Governance had filed a lawsuit seeking an emergency order to block parts of the Georgia law related to election observation and the deadline to submit absentee ballot applications before the elections. But U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee would not "change the law in the ninth inning," citing Supreme Court precedent that instructs courts to refrain from changing existing election rules when an election is imminent.
"Election administrators have prepared to implement the challenged rules, have implemented them at least to some extent and now would have to grapple with a different set of rules in the middle of the election," Boulee wrote in his order. "The risk of disrupting the administration of an ongoing election ... outweigh[s] the alleged harm to plaintiffs at this time."
While Boulee would not grant the emergency order sought by the plaintiffs, his ruling does not preclude parts of the Georgia law being struck down in the future, as the full lawsuit is still pending in federal court. The lawsuit is one of eight federal lawsuits challenging Georgia's election law.
Democrats and left-wing voting rights activists have lambasted the Georgia law, accusing Republicans of attempting to suppress the votes of black Americans and other minority groups through restrictive voter ID requirements and other changes. The Biden Department of Justice is currently suing Georgia, claiming that its new election law unconstitutionally discriminates against black Americans.
The Coalition for Good Governance's lawsuit challenged lesser-known provisions of the Georgia law, including a prohibition on observing how someone votes while they are in the midst of casting a ballot; a rule forbidding election observers to discuss information they see while processing and scanning absentee ballots with anyone besides other election officials; a ban on estimating the number of absentee ballots cast; a ban on photographing voted ballots; and a shortening of the time period to submit an absentee ballot application to at least 11 days before election day.
Reacting to the judge's decision, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, "This is just another in the line of frivolous lawsuits against Georgia's election law based on misinformation and lies. We will continue to meet them and beat them in court."
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, expressed disappointment with the order but vowed to press on with the lawsuit.
"We're concerned about the voter confusion that will no doubt occur with these little-known rapid changes to the rules, including the required information on ballot applications and the short deadline for applications to be received in this last week before the election," Marks said.
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