Late at night in the Georgia House last week, representatives pushed through a hastily rewritten elections bill with little notice, less debate and no hint of its significance.
This short bill is called a “vehicle” — a piece of legislation that can be amended to include very different election proposals, some of which never received a hearing or committee vote.
House Bill 397, which passed the House and awaits action in the Senate, creates a process to remove members of the State Election Board.
But Republicans might alter it to include ideas that did not survive last week’s deadline for bills to clear at least one legislative chamber, such as prohibiting voters from turning in their absentee ballots in-person the weekend before Election Day, banning last-minute election rules and a plan to withdraw Georgia from a national voter registration accuracy organization.
“Everybody is looking at it and probably looking to make some changes,” said Senate Ethics Committee Chair Sam Watson, a Republican from Moultrie. “It’s good to take time and take a breath. Let’s see what happens and go from there.”
This lawmaking process lacks transparency, said Rachel Lastinger of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
“The public doesn’t know what’s been happening behind the scenes on this bill,” Lastinger said. “We have to watch it really closely. They can make it whatever they want.”
What will happen to the bill now that it is in the hands of the Senate?
“That’s a good question,” said House Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Victor Anderson, a Republican from Cornelia. “If it doesn’t need to be done, we won’t do it. I’ll have to see.”
HB 397 is now in Watson’s Senate Committee on Ethics, which handles election legislation.
Watson proposed his own election bill, Senate Bill 270, which would limit hand-delivery of absentee ballots, prevent the State Election Board from enacting new rules within 60 days of an election and give partisan poll watchers more access to ballot tabulation areas. That bill didn’t survive Crossover Day, but pieces of it could be added to the House bill.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
HB 397 already has taken a winding legislative journey.
Before the bill was changed ahead of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline, it would have allowed cities to cancel Saturday voting before municipal elections. But some Democratic legislators opposed the bill and Anderson said he wanted to keep an elections bill alive for further discussion.
So the bill was entirely replaced, with legislators deleting the Saturday voting provision and inserting language from a bill introduced by a Democrat, state Rep. Saira Draper of Atlanta, giving House Speaker Jon Burns and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones the ability to remove State Election Board members when the General Assembly is not in session.
The board’s Republican majority created controversy before last year’s election for passing rules seeking hand ballot counts on election night and a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results. A Fulton County judge threw out those rules, and the Georgia Supreme Court will hear an appeal next week.
The House voted 159-13 to approve the new version of HB 397 at 10:40 p.m. Thursday and adjourned 16 minutes later.
“It’s clear Republicans wanted to pass an election bill that Democrats would not object to and would not take up valuable time on Crossover Day speaking against,” Draper said. “But if their intent is to now use that bill to advance legislation that Democrats haven’t seen and weighed in on, that’s an affront to transparency and the democratic process.”
Watson said he does not oppose the bill’s provision allowing legislative leaders to remove State Election Board members they appointed. The board has four Republicans and one Democrat, appointed by the House, Senate, governor, Republican Party and Democratic Party.
The Senate Committee on Ethics could soon propose additions and revisions to HB 397. To become law, all bills must pass both the Senate and House before this year’s legislative session ends April 4.
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