Georgia Elections Rule Yet Another Anti-Democratic Effort in the State

September 20, 2024

Georgia Elections Rule Yet Another Anti-Democratic Effort in the State

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A new rule announced Friday by the Georgia State Election Board tasks election workers to hand count ballots starting on Election Day. Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said this is another anti-democratic effort to hinder democratic elections in Georgia.

"Instead of providing better access to the polls, extremists in Georgia are changing the rules just over a month before we elect new leaders," said Gilbert. "This new policy will only create more distrust of our safe and secure election system, burden election workers and slow the vote count."

Since 2020, several states have implemented new voter restrictions to suppress turnout. Georgia, Texas, Montana and Iowa have added new voter-restriction policies such as shortening early voting windows, requiring new voter registration if voters don't participate in the previous election, forbidding automatic mailing absentee ballot applications and requiring IDs at the polls; states have also purged voter roles and even sued to try to prevent voter registration efforts.