GA Voting Law Subject Of U.S. Justice Department Lawsuit

ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice will file a lawsuit against Georgia over its new voting law, alleging that the state's new elections provisions discriminate against voters of color and that this was Georgia lawmakers' intent, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday.

This federal action will be added to a line of other lawsuits and boycotts against the state over the same law, including the removal of Major League Baseball's All-Star Game from Atlanta and Will Smith's movie "Emancipation" pulling out of filming in the state.

“The rights of all eligible citizens to vote are the central pillars of our democracy,” Garland said in a Friday news conference at the Justice Department. “They are the rights from which all other rights ultimately flow.”

These actions also come after former President Donald Trump spent months challenging Georgia's election integrity and filing lawsuits to overturn the state's presidential election results that favored a Democratic president for the first time since Bill Clinton's election in 1992.

“This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start,” Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement Friday. “Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams and their allies tried to force an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress — and failed. Now, they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy."

"As Secretary of State, I fought the Obama Justice Department twice to protect the security of our elections — and won. I look forward to going three for three to ensure it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat in Georgia.”

The lawsuit challenges several provisions of Senate Bill 202, the Republican-sponsored bill that implemented new provisions on absentee voting and greater legislative control on how elections are run. Kemp signed the bill into law March 25.

One of the provisions adds rules on where volunteers can pass out food and/or drinks to voters in line. Those volunteers can still pass out refreshments, but can only do so if they are outside 150 feet of a polling place or 25 feet from the end of the voter line, under the new law.

The same boundary rules have already applied to those who try to campaign to voters in line, but the General Assembly added people passing out refreshments to the rule this year — effectively equating the two.

According to a news release from the Department of Justice, the lawsuit challenges the refreshments provision.

“Where we believe the civil rights of Americans have been violated, we will not hesitate to act,” Garland said.

Voting rights activists said this provision disproportionately affects voters of color, who they say are often subject to long voting lines, and whose churches and civic groups often pass out food and water on Election Day.

"We all witnessed the hours-long lines to vote in Georgia during this last election cycle, from the primary onwards, and voters of color disproportionately bear the burden of waiting in these long lines," said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, in an April news conference. "But instead of celebrating, encouraging and making it easier for organizations like [the African Methodist Episcopal] Church to affirm the dignity of Black and brown voters, and to provide refreshments and encouragement for voters subjected to these lines to stay in line and have a voice in these elections, Georgia is criminalizing these efforts."

The new law also does the following:

• Replaces signature matching on absentee ballots, and instead requires a driver's license ID or state ID number.
• Shortens the length of time to both request and complete an absentee ballot application.
• Prohibits government entities from distributing unsolicited absentee ballot applications.
• Moves drop box locations to inside government buildings and therefore limiting hours the public can access them.
• Adds mandatory Saturday voting and makes Sunday voting optional.
• Shortens the required polling hours from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. to 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Counties can still opt to keep polling locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. if they wish.

The Department of Justice plans to challenge the above provisions in the law, among others, according to the release.

“The right to vote is one of the most central rights in our democracy and protecting the right to vote for all Americans is at the core of the Civil Rights Division’s mission,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in the release. “The Department of Justice will use all the tools it has available to ensure that each eligible citizen can register, cast a ballot, and have that ballot counted free from racial discrimination. Laws adopted with a racially motivated purpose, like Georgia Senate Bill 202, simply have no place in democracy today.”

Read more:

• Election Law Restricts Absentee Voting, Weakens Sec. of State
• AME Church, Others Plan April 7 Boycott Over New GA Voting Law
  
• AME Church, Faith Leaders Pause Georgia Corporation Boycott
• SPLC, NAACP, ACLU Sue Georgia Over New Elections Laws
  
• Kemp Says MLB Caved To Fear In Moving All-Star Game From Atlanta
• Corporations Chime In On GA Election Law After The Fact
  
• Trump Campaign Drops Georgia Election Lawsuits
• Multi-State Election Suit Against GA Tossed By U.S. Supreme Court
• 'Kraken' Lawsuit Against Kemp, Raffensperger Withdrawn
  
• Trump Campaign Sues Georgia To Halt Vote Count
• Will Smith's Movie 'Emancipation' Ditches GA Over New Voting Law