Myth v. Fact: Georgia's Election Integrity Act

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The Election Integrity Act enacted last year in Georgia makes it easier for citizens to vote and harder to cheat.
• Democrats cynically mischaracterized the law as a voter suppression bill and vilified its supporters.
• The first federal and statewide elections in Georgia since the law was passed had record turnout, short lines, and few problems.

Last year the state of Georgia enacted a new law to make it easier for citizens to vote and harder for anyone to cheat. The Election Integrity Act expanded in-person early voting hours, mandated each county have at least one drop box for absentee ballots, and secured drop boxes around the clock. It set clear voter ID requirements, expanded weekend voting, and provided increased staff and equipment at polling locations where there have been long waits.

From the start, Democrats mischaracterized the bill and demonized its supporters. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the law, “a despicable voter suppression bill” that would “take Georgia back to Jim Crow.” Democratic activist and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said the law was “a redux of Jim Crow.” Corporate America bought into the myth as well. Numerous companies issued statements opposing the law and Major League Baseball moved the All-Star game out of Atlanta in protest, costing the city an estimated $100 million in tourism revenue.

Much of the opposition to the law is based on myths and misconceptions about what the law does and does not do.

MYTH: “Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious things: voter suppression and election subversion. It’s no longer about who gets to vote; it’s about making it harder to vote.” – President Joe BIDEN, January, 2022

FACT: over 850,000 Georgians CAST early ballots in the May primary in Georgia, more than three times the number in 2018, and higher than in 2020, a presidential year.

The Jim Crow era is a dark period of American history, marked by systematic segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement of people based on the color of their skin. To equate the Georgia voting law, which expanded voting rights and mirrored commonsense security and voter-ID provisions contained in dozens of states’ laws, to Jim Crow, where people were prevented from voting and even killed, diminishes the tragedies of that era.

Yet that is exactly what prominent Democrats did. President Biden said in a March 2021 speech about the bill: “This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end.”

Voters went to the polls last month in Georgia for the first federal and statewide elections since the Election Integrity Act took effect. Democrats’ dire warnings and grim predictions were exposed for what they were: lies and cynical fundraising appeals.

Numbers from the Georgia secretary of state’s office show that voting surged in the state. More than 850,000 Georgians cast early ballots, a 168% increase over the 2018 primary and a 212% increase over 2020, a presidential year. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported voters experienced “short lines and limited problems” on Election Day in Georgia. In contrast, in California’s recent primary election the Los Angeles Times reported: “Early turnout was dismal before polling sites opened Tuesday. Every registered voter in the state was mailed a ballot, but only 15% had gotten them to election officials or weighed in at early in-person vote centers.”

Minority voting also soared in Georgia. A National Review analysis of data released by the Georgia secretary of state found more than three times as many Black voters cast early ballots in this year’s primary election as cast them in 2018. The review also found Black voters made up 2.75% more of the electorate than in 2020.

MYTH: “Among the outrageous parts of this new state law, it ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over.” – President Joe BIDEN, March, 2021

FACT: Polling places are OPEN from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day in Georgia, and as long as you are in line by 7 p.m. you are allowed to cast your ballot. Nothing in the new law changed this.

President Biden on multiple occasions claimed that the Georgia law ended voting at 5 p.m. In March, 2021, he said: “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick … deciding that you’re going to end voting at five o’clock when working people are just getting off work.” He also claimed the law “ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over.”

This claim was never true. Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day in Georgia, and as long as you are in line by 7 p.m. you are allowed to cast your ballot. Nothing in the new law changed this. As the Washington Post fact-checker put it: “Not a single expert we consulted who has studied the law understood why Biden made this claim, as this was the section of law that expanded early voting for many Georgians. Somehow Biden managed to turn that expansion into a restriction aimed at working people, calling it “among the outrageous parts” of the law. There’s no evidence that is the case.”

MYTH: “It’s an atrocity … they passed a law saying you can’t provide water for people standing in line while they’re waiting to vote. You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing but punitive design to keep people from voting. You can’t provide water for people about to vote? Give me a break.” – President Joe BIDEN, March, 2021.

FACT: The law allows for self-service water from unattended receptacles. the law bans political groups from offering food and water within 150 feet of a voting location, just as many other states do. voters are allowed to bring food and water with them.

Democrats repeatedly mischaracterized a simple provision in the law that bans political solicitations within 150 feet of voting locations. President Biden said: “It’s an atrocity … they passed a law saying you can’t provide water for people standing in line while they’re waiting to vote. You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing but punitive design to keep people from voting. You can’t provide water for people about to vote? Give me a break.”

In fact, the law is focused on preventing political groups from soliciting or pressuring voters as they try to cast their ballot. The provision reads: “No person shall solicit votes in any manner or by any means or method, nor shall any person distribute or display any campaign material, nor shall any person give, offer to give, or participate in the giving of any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink, to an elector.” The law allows for self-service water stations, and of course voters can bring water with them. Groups can also set up tables 150 feet or more away from polling locations and hand out literature, food, water, or anything else.

In the end, the claims about access to water, just like the claims about “voter suppression” and early closing times at the polls, proved to be nothing more than mischaracterization and outright falsehoods about a law that is well within the mainstream of election laws across the states. The Georgia law protects all Georgians right to vote while ensuring that elections in Georgia are secure.