Let's Talk...Election Integrity Act of 2021

By now I am sure that anyone who watches the news has seen the spat about the revamping of Georgia’s voting laws. I listened as the President stood at the podium and made many claims about the bill – calling it Jim Crow on steroids. That is anti-American. I see now that the MLB has pulled the “All Star Game” because of it. It that warranted? Major companies are squawking. Warranted?

I heard a lot from both sides, so I decided to look at the bill for myself. All 94 boring, word salad pages. Let’s look at the questions one at a time.

CLAIM: Polling places are only open 9am to 5pm. Yep. Some polling places in the past were only open part-time. The General Assembly made it that all polling places had to be open at least from 9am to 5pm. They have the option of being open from 7am to 7pm if they choose; Saturdays as well, with two Sundays being optional. Polling places are required to open four Mondays before the election (sounds kind of like four weeks to me.)

CLAIM: The Bill makes it harder to get an absentee ballot. Let’s see; all they have to do is apply. No excuse needed, which is unlike New Hampshire and New York, where they must have a good reason to get absentee ballot, although they do have to apply before the last fourteen days of the election cycle.

CLAIM: Not enough absentee drop boxes. This was before they redid the election laws; some areas did not have a drop box. The new amendment states that every county shall have at least one drop box, with the option of adding more.

CLAIM: Voter I.D. suppresses minority voters. Well, I am sorry, but that’s just stupid. In this day and age you cannot live without some form of I.D. Seems a bit racist to me to suggest that minorities will be hurt by requiring an I.D.

CLAIM: The State is taking control of elections. Yes, the General Assembly did remove the Secretary of State from the Election Board. However, the election board still answers to the Secretary of State. The General Assembly will elect a chairperson, a person elected by the Senate of the General Assembly, as well as the House of Representatives of the General Assembly. A member of each political party to be nominated and appointed in the manner provided in the Code section. No person, while a member of the General Assembly, shall serve as a member of the board. The chairperson the board shall be nonpartisan. I have provided a link at the end of this article if you wish to research this part more.

CLAIM: People are not allowed to give water or snacks to those standing in line. In reality, political parties are not allowed to approach those in line. Anyone else can until they are within 150 feet of the polling place doors. Also, if the lines are so long that people will have to wait more than an hour, they required to add to the polling station or open another.

Type this link into Google and you can read the Election Integrity Bill for yourself: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20212022/201121.

Opening statement of the Election Integrity Act 2021: “In considering the changes in 2021, the General Assembly heard hours of testimony from electors, election officials, and attorneys involved in voting. The General Assembly made significant modifications through the legislative process as it weighed the various interests involved, including adding further weekend voting, changing parameters for our-of-precinct voting, and adding transparency for ballot images. The changes in total reflect the General assembly’s considered judgment on the changes required to Georgia’s election system to make it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

“Following the 2018 and 2020 elections, there was a significant lack of confidence in the Georgia election systems, with many electors concerned about allegations of rampant voter suppression and many electors concerned about allegations of rampant voter fraud. The changes made in this legislation in 2021 are designed to address the lack of elector confidence in the election system on all sides of the political spectrum, to reduce the burden on election officials, and to streamline the process of conducting elections in Georgia by promoting uniformity in voting.”

The bottom line, in my opinion? You can’t trust those in power to tell you the truth. You can’t trust most of the media to tell you the truth. You can’t trust most newspapers to tell you the truth. However, you can easily research the truth for yourself. The internet is a wonderful thing; it brings all things to light.

Do you have something in the wicked world of politics you want to know about? Send it to me at learnourselves21@gmail.com