A new election law is being fought in Georgia, this time over voter challenges.

ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams has been rocked by the fierce battle over election laws since narrow loss to Republican Brian Kemp in the 2018 governor’s race.

The statewide controversy burst into the national consciousness in 2021, when Republicans were under pressure from GOP activists who pushed Donald Trump’s false claims He lost the 2020 election due to widespread fraud – rammed through a giant law Imposing new restrictions on voters.

Now, with just months to go until a potential rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, Georgia is once again messing with state election laws. Just last week, Republican lawmakers passed a new bill Which would allow people to be removed from the voting rolls through voter eligibility challenges. It awaits Kemp’s signature or veto.

Supporters say such challenges prevent fraud by removing duplicate records and voters who have moved out of state. Opponents charge that they misuse the data and would put legitimate voters in legal trouble.

Here’s a closer look at the issue:

What is the voter’s challenge?

Georgia, along with other states, allows citizens to challenge a person’s eligibility to vote, such as when they have personal information about a neighbor moving out of state. However, residents are now challenging voter enumeration in large numbers through the use of impersonal data, including the national change of address list maintained by the US Postal Service. Others are looking for people who are not registered at a residential address. A texas The group is called True the Vote Georgia’s 364,000 voters challenged Before two US Senate runoffs in 2021. Since then, individuals and groups have issued nearly 100,000 challenges.

What motivates challengers?

Under federal law, Georgia can only remove someone from the rolls if they do not respond to mail at their registered address and then do not vote in the two subsequent federal general elections. That process may take five years. Republican activists who support challenging the electors in large numbers say that’s too long.

Mark Davis said, “These are voters who moved to their old address a few months or years before they voted, went back and showed a driver’s license, knew they hadn’t updated, claimed they still Live there, and were granted the ability to vote.” A Gwinnett County resident who said he has been combing through voter rolls for decades. He testified for Republicans at a Feb. 15 state Senate hearing that helped shape this year’s legislation.

Why do some people resist challenges?

Opponents have described the challengers to mass voter turnout as “vigilantes” who are upsetting the balance between updating voter rolls and ensuring everyone has the right to vote.

“There are people here who want to pretend that there’s a huge problem with our list and that if a deceased person’s name is on the list, it’s a real security risk,” countered Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat. Bill, said last week. “But put aside the fear-mongering and logical leaps, and the facts show that actual voter fraud in Georgia is extremely small.”

Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Abrams sued unsuccessfully True the Vote challenges argue that such challenges disproportionately target young and poor voters, including African Americans, because they tend to turn out more frequently. Interim Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said she believes Republicans are trying to win the Georgia election by turning out Democratic-leaning voters.

Opponents also note that the challengers include party activists and Trump allies who supported Trump’s false claims. One of them is Brad Carver, head of the Georgia Republican Party’s Election Confidence Task Force and one of 16 Republicans accused of wrongdoing. claimed to be a valid voter For Trump in Georgia. This also includes Trump’s former lawyer Cleta Mitchell who participated in it january 2021 phone call during which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s Georgia victory.

Draper said, “I can’t believe that when it comes to election policy we are still bending to accommodate election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and non-conspiracy theorists.”

What will the new bill do?

The bill defines possible reasons for removing voters from the rolls, among them death, proof of voting or registration in another jurisdiction, a tax exemption indicating primary residence elsewhere, or a non-residential address. Most controversially, the new bill states that the National Change of Address List may be considered, although not exclusively. Opponents say the list is unreliable.

However, it’s unclear how the law will change things, as the state has never issued guidelines to counties on how to handle the challenges. This means that some people may accept them based on the probable cause cited in the bill, while others may reject collective challenges outright.

What do opponents see as problems?

Opponents of the new bill say it could harm legal voters. For example, people sometimes live at a place of business, which would be considered a non-residential address. Officials in Raffensperger’s office say there are more reliable types of information to confirm voter eligibility, such as driver’s license data.

Raffensperger’s chief operating officer, Gabriel Sterling, testified in February that removing voters from the rolls too aggressively could lead to lawsuits under the National Voter Registration Act.

“When you do loose data matching, you get a lot of false positives,” Sterling said. ,

The bill also states that homeless people must use the county voter registration office where they live as their address. Opponents say it could make it harder for homeless citizens to vote because their registered polling place may be farther away.

Can challenging voters be intimidated?

Opponents say receiving voter challenge letters in the mail is an intimidating experience, and voters may have to take time off to attend a county meeting to protect their eligibility.

However, a federal judge ruled in January that the challenges did not amount to illegal intimidation under the Voting Rights Act.

Is there any basis for a lawsuit?

The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia has already threatened to sue if Kemp signs the bill.

The National Voter Registration Act says states and counties cannot make systematic changes to voting rolls within 90 days of a federal election. The Georgia bill would allow challenges to be accepted and voters to be removed from the rolls up to 45 days before the election.

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