M.D. Kittle writes for the Federalist about Georgia’s attempt to enhance election integrity.
Listening to Democrats and their lawfare allies, you would think the package of provisions aimed at greater transparency and accountability in elections will turn the clock back to the Jim Crow era (which Democrats created, by the way). For the race-baiting left, any mention of integrity in elections from the right equals “voter suppression.”
“House Bill 976 threatens democracy,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) direly insists in a mass mailing urging Georgians to email their lawmakers to vote against the bill.
Curiously, the ACLU, a crusader against voter ID, clean voter rolls, and other basic election integrity safeguards, claims HB 976, “Threatens Election Integrity” by allowing “third party databases to be used as evidence” to prove voter ineligibility.
Integrity appears to be a problem for the ACLU in general. The bill’s language allows only government-created or recognized databases to be used for challenges, not isolated third-party databases.
The ACLU, defender of big-spending social programs, laughably demands the elections bill “Wastes Taxpayers Dollars” and “Overburdens Election Workers” by requiring homeless people to use the county registrar’s office as their mailing address for registering to vote. “This would require county staff to implement new processes to handle this mail during an election year,” the mailer asserts.
It’s all designed, according to the far-left’s law firm, to “create undue burdens for voters and election officials, and disproportionately impact voters of color.”
Sounds scary. But the legislation does none of those things. …
… House Bill 976 improves ballot chain-of-custody procedures, makes certified absentee ballots subject to public records laws, and lays out standards for when parties and individuals may challenge invalid voter roll records. Democrat “voter rights” activists have blasted the tens of thousands of challenges in recent years, but the red flags have largely been driven by the refusal of election administrators in Georgia’s major metro counties to deal with invalid voter records.