Georgia Republican state legislators unveiled an elections overhaul bill Wednesday that would empower the State Election Board after its conservative majority tried and failed to change several rules weeks before Election Day last year.
The rewritten bill would mandate the kind of hand ballot counts proposed by the board last fall, give the board authority over voter eligibility appeals and withdraw Georgia from a multistate voter accuracy organization.
The 26-page legislation includes many new proposals never previously debated this year, with just a week and a half left in the legislative session. The latest version is entirely different from the bill that passed the House, removing a provision allowing legislative leaders to remove State Election Board members.
The measure, House Bill 397, seeks to encode several State Election Board rules the courts overturned last year, including the proposal to count ballots cast by hand after polls close on election night. Under the bill, votes would still be tabulated by machines, with the hand count verifying the number of ballots.
The legislation also includes other board priorities, including giving partisan poll watchers access to vote-counting areas and requiring video surveillance of drop boxes after early voting locations close.
Additionally, the bill would bar voters from hand-delivering absentee ballots the weekend before Election Day.
The actions of the board drew criticism from some people who spoke out against the proposed new legislation during a three-hour public hearing Wednesday.
“They exceeded their authority, tried to create laws, did things that were illegal in the state of Georgia,” Beth Ann Frillman, a DeKalb County voter, told the Senate Ethics Committee. “We can’t count on the State Election Board to do these things in a common sense manner.”
Under the bill, the board would gain custody of the secretary of state’s election investigation reports and become independent from the secretary of state’s office, instead attached to the State Accounting Office.
But the bill also seeks to constrain the State Election Board in one way.
The measure would limit the kind of last-minute rules pushed by the board last fall, prohibiting new election rules within 60 days of an election. The Georgia Supreme Court last week heard an appeal of a judge’s decision that the board overstepped its authority. The court is expected to rule on the appeal in the coming months.
Supporters of the hand-counting proposal said it’s needed to ensure all ballots are accounted for.
“Everything should have a double-check. You need checks and balances,” said Sharlene Alexander, the Fayette County election board member who proposed the hand-count rule. “Now, we don’t count anything. We open the scanner and pull all those ballots out and stick them in a sealed container.”
County election directors warned the committee that hand counts could delay results, lead to miscounts by tired poll workers and introduce disorganization at voting locations.
“We do not want to see that process slowed down by people staying at a precinct and hand counting ballots on election night,” said Greene County Election Director Rebecca Anglin. “We want full control of those ballots at all times. We want them locked and sealed and brought back to our office as soon as possible.”
Several supporters of the bill said people who file challenges against the eligibility of voters should be able to appeal to the State Election Board when county election boards rule against them.
Jason Frazier, who has challenged voter registrations in Fulton County, said more accurate voter lists would reduce the possibility of illegal voting and registrations in more than one state after voters move.
“If you clean that up, people won’t be challenging them because they’ll be removed when they move out of state,” Frazier said. Georgia’s voter list “may be the cleanest in the country, but if that’s the cleanest, we’ve got some problems.”
Senators questioned how election officials would find as many outdated voter registrations if Georgia quits participating in the 24-state partnership called the Electronic Registration Information Center.
The secretary of state’s office announced plans this week to cancel 455,000 inactive voter registrations this summer. More than half were identified by ERIC as having moved to another state.
“ERIC may not be the perfect, but we need something to take its place. We’ve got to exchange that information with other states, and I’m concerned about that,” said state Sen. Rick Williams, a Republican from Milledgeville.
The Senate Ethics Committee concluded the hearing without taking a vote.
Republican senators generally appeared to support the measure and Democrats opposed it.
The committee could amend the bill and vote on it Thursday, setting up final votes in the Senate and House next week.
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