ATLANTA – The U.S. Justice Department will take Georgia to court over its new election law.
Attorney General Merrick Garland Friday is expected to announce the department will file a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Senate Bill 202, which imposes new voter identification requirements, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and impose other requirements that critics say will disproportionately affect minority voters.
The federal action is the eighth lawsuit seeking to overturn provisions of the new law. Various voting rights groups filed the other lawsuits. But the latest would devote the resources of the federal government to overturning SB 202.
Georgia Republicans say the law is not discriminatory, and complaints against it are designed to rile up Democratic voters ahead of next year’s elections.
Georgia lawmakers passed SB 202 on a party-line vote in response to President Donald Trump’s accusations of widespread fraud in the November election. Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia by less than 12,000 votes. In lawsuits, Trump said tens of thousands of ineligible people cast ballots in Georgia.
Recounts and audits confirmed Biden’s victory. A slew of lawsuits that sought to overturn the results went nowhere, and election experts called the allegations of fraud “wildly unreliable” and “worthless.” While investigators are 100 fraud allegations from November, they would not change the election result even if every allegation is substantiated.
Democrats say SB 202 is based on Trump’s “big lie” of election fraud, and is a deliberate attempt to suppress minority votes. Republicans say the law is a prudent response to concerns about election security, and it remains easier to vote in Georgia than in many states controlled by Democrats.
____
