NEW: the Georgia House Special Committee on Election Integrity is meeting at 3 this afternoon and just added HB 531 - a 48 page omnibus elections bill that proposes a *lot* of changes. #gapol

Here's the text:

First, it would ban county elections offices from receiving outside funding to run elections.

This, after CTCL and Schwarzenegger gave money to both D and R counties in 2020 to help with pandemic.

(although I wonder if the county gov't could take the grant, then disburse?)
Next, it outlines ways that poll workers can serve adjacent counties (currently, you can only work in your county of residence)
This section mirrors an SOS-backed bill from 2020 that would require more machines, more poll workers or splitting up precincts if a 2,000+ person precinct has lines of more than an hour.

More on that proposal: https://t.co/7BfIcrI81q
This is an anti-Fulton County mobile voting bus section

(although I still believe that it's using the wrong code section since the busses are for *early* voting and fall under 21-2-382)
Current law requires 1 ballot-marking device per 250 active voters in a precinct for Election Day.

This would keep that for general elections, but allow flexibility for primaries, runoffs and other elections, based on expected turnout+early voting numbers.
This tweaks language about notice of Logic & Accuracy testing, making this very boring and very necessary piece of the voting process more publicly known.
This section is big:

-Earliest request for absentee ballot is 11 weeks before election, latest is 2 Fridays before election

-Application has DL# or state ID# or copy of photo ID, both paper+online

-No gov't/elections office can directly send an absentee ballot application
Drop boxes: allowed at early voting sites, only open during early voting hours, and close once early voting closes.

Also requires constant supervision by election official/poll worker/security/law enforcement.
Absentees:

Most would be sent out starting ~4 weeks before the election (except federal UOCAVA)

Outer absentee envelopes would also require DL #/ID # or last four of Social Security number - and all that would be hidden by envelope design until opened.
Instant runoff ranked-choice voting for UOCAVA voters, although it looks like it gets rid of electronic ballots.
Wow - this section would disallow counties from adding extra weekend early voting hours, and require 9A-5P (with the ability to extend to 7A-7P if needed)

That makes it harder for people that don't have job flexibility, large metro counties+nonwhite voters...
This section gets rid of signature verification, because election workers would be verifying DL # or SSN and Date of Birth.

Also, allows counties to begin processing absentee ballots no earlier than two weeks before election and no later than a week before.
These two sections provide more info about partisan poll watchers, and then bans "line warming" and people giving water or food to people in line (usually at polling places that have long lines)
This section would get rid of out-of-precinct provisionals.
This section would require a bipartisan panel to duplicate ballots that can't be properly scanned.
Georgia's HB 531 would also move up the certification deadline to... the Monday after the election, instead of the Friday after.

That would make a whole lot more work for local officials that have to count all the votes and ensure they're correct.
In the hearing, Fleming says this section provides "uniformity" on dates and times.

But out of GA's 159 counties, some rural counties have as much population county-wide as a single precinct in metro ATL.

It's uniform but unequal.

https://t.co/E5bzMwkQ8z
Dean of the House Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) speaking now, and says he doesn't see the rush to make all of these changes, since it's a big bill with a lot of changes.

"There's nothing more important fundamentally than a person's right and the the privilege of voting."
Story: Georgia Republicans File Sweeping Elections Bill That Limits Early, Absentee Voting

https://t.co/rFv60saT5a

More from Government

Labour Grandees are listed in Sir Keir Starmer's colleague Jeffrey Epstein's ''Little Black Book''; Blair, Mandelson and Alastair Campbell. COINCIDENTLY, Keir Starmer and some of the same people have connections to ANOTHER of the worlds most prolific peadophiles. #StarmerOut


Starmer failed to bring charges against Jimmy Savile for paedophilia. The decision was made despite the Crown Prosecution Service receiving substantial evidence of his crimes from witnesses and victims several years before Savile died in 2011. #StarmerOut
https://t.co/PNyX5uSAkw


With a past like hers, Margaret Hodge might show a bit more humility.
In the Eighties Hodge was aware of previous child sex abuse in the care homes for which she was responsible, and did nothing about it. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut

As leader of Islington Council, a post she held from 1982-92, Margaret Hodge was aware of previous, horrendous child sex abuse in the care homes for which she was responsible, and did nothing about it. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut #CSA

She was guilty of rather more than a casual failure of oversight. In an open letter to the BBC after it investigated a range of monstrous abuse (child prostitution, torture, alleged murders), Hodge libelled one of its victims as “seriously disturbed”. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut
Parents in cities, please pay attention to the reopening details from the Whitehouse.

Biden says "small classes". What we need to understand is how they plant to accomplish this.

Through "childcare programs in schools". We see this all over states w/ closed schools.


We need to grasp that the AFT, NEA, & local unions are systematically working to decouple education from childcare.

Their vision is your child sitting on a device all day, watched by a childcare worker, being "taught" from a Teacher working from

This isn't a paranoid conspiracy theory - it is already happening in the majority of districts across the US where schools are closed.

"Learning Hubs" open, supervised by childcare workers, sometimes in the same "unsafe" school

There is NO OTHER WAY to get "small classes" without Hybrid + wraparound childcare. Your child will spend 2-3 days per WEEK supervised by low wage workers and sitting on a laptop.

Here's

Fairfax,

You May Also Like