Brunswick News. April 9, 2024.
Editorial: Updating voter rolls will make for more secure elections
It never fails. Whenever the Georgia General Assembly acts to tighten the voting laws of this state, someone jumps up and begins shouting “foul!”
Georgians witnessed that firsthand a while back when President Joe Biden falsely claimed more restrictive voting laws passed in 2021 was a little more than an attempt by this Southern state to revisit the days of Jim Crow laws. The state’s two senators joined that despicable chorus, criticizing the support given it by Republican legislators, whose goal was to protect the integrity of elections in all of Georgia’s 159 counties.
Even Major League Baseball jumped on the Georgia backlash bandwagon. Because of the new voting laws, it unceremoniously yanked its all-star baseball game out of Atlanta and moved it to Denver, Colorado. Relocating the game cost the Peach State capital and the business community of Atlanta millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Today, a new voting law passed this year by the Georgia House and Senate and awaiting the signature of Gov. Brian Kemp is raising the hackles of lawmakers who happen to be Democrats. In short, they do not trust the new law or the motives of the party backing it.
Senate Bill 189 combines several measures related to election ballots and voting, but one of the facets of the bill that has Democrats howling calls for a more aggressive approach in plucking off the official voter rolls people who should not be listed as electors in this state.
Under the bill, anyone can challenge a voter, including a neighbor who knows for a fact that a voter who once lived across the street now resides in another state.
As with any new law, there exists a potential for its objective to be abused or used incorrectly, but given the watchful eyes and close scrutiny of the two mainstream political parties these days and the growing distrust that they are allowing to divide them even more, that is unlikely to happen.
There is nothing wrong with verifying if a voter lives in this state. There also is nothing wrong with removing those who live elsewhere from the pages of legitimate electors.
Lawmakers and most fair-minded voters like to think of it as ensuring the integrity of elections in Georgia.
END