Georgia’s New Election Laws
On Thursday, with the deadline quickly approaching, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed off on over 250 bills, adding several new election laws to the state. Included in those new laws are limits on how election donations can be made and mandatory time off for Georgians to vote in person.
Georgia’s Senate Bill 222 was strongly supported by Republican Senator Max Burns, who explains that it will close a loophole which allowed Democratic counties to receive millions of elections dollars during the 2020 election term.
Under the new law, it is a felony for the governments of any Georgia county to receive funds for election costs from a private organization…and that now includes nonprofits.
It is no secret that the CEO of Meta (Facebook) donated over $400 million to Democratic election offices all over the United Stated during the 2020 election, including $45 million in Georgia. Those donations were made by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, through their non-profit, Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), and leaned heavily to those counties that vote Democrat.
In fact, blue counties received four times as much in Zuckerberg-funded donations and grants as red counties. However, there are allegations that even the funding for Republicans was more likely to be given to those who did not favor Trump. According to a lawsuit by Greater Georgia, $5.6 million of those Georgia funds were made directly to the office of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and known opposer of the 45th president.
Although the funds were labeled as “election safety” due to the pandemic, very little of the money went towards PPE for virus protection, which led many voters to question where that cash ended up. According to Foundation for Government Accountability CEO Tarren Bragdon, “The Zuckerberg Funding is an unprecedented example of using government employees and government resources to put your finger on the scale, to affect election outcome.”
Former election official, Hans von Spakovsky agrees. He called Zuckerberg’s donations a “carefully orchestrated attempt” to influence the 2020 election and added that it “violated fundamental principles of equal treatment of voters, since it may have led to unequal opportunities to vote in different areas of a state.”
Now, with Kemp’s signature on Senate Bill 222, not only will such practices be a violation of principles, but they will also be a felony in the state. Georgia is the 24th state to sign similar bills into law since the 2020 election. As Spakovsky stated in 2021, “All states should ban private funding of government election offices, no matter the source.”
As Senator Burns explains, “This measure is an important and necessary step in guaranteeing our elections are not subject to interference from third-party organizations. It is vital that all funding for elections is properly allocated from the state level to limit the possibility that our state and local election workers are influenced by organizations that operate on their own self-interest.”
Kemp also signed into law a bill that will allow Georgia voters to take time off from work to vote in person during the election season. Many of the Georgia voters who stood in favor of mail-in voting claimed that they could not make it to in-person voting due to their work schedules.
That issue is now resolved with the new law, which will give voters a two-hour window to vote in person. Georgia businesses will be required to allow their employees the time off, either during early voting periods, or on Election Day. Republican Senator Rick Williams of Milledgeville supported this bill and stated that it would, “further empower Georgians to participate in one of the most important civic duties.”
Many Georgians, as well as citizens of other states, had become jaded on the election process after the results of the 2020 election. Some expressed doubt in whether or not their vote counts, as they watched millions of dollars pour in to one side to unbalance the results.
While those Georgia voters are still expressing frustration in the fact that the same voting machines are being used, these new laws could be a small step in the right direction to restoring some faith in the voting system and allowing voters the time off that they need to make it to the polls. While voters feel the election process still has a long way to go, these moves are a good beginning.