Proposed voting ‘reforms’ give conspiracy theorists more ammo
The Georgia General Assembly passed a controversial voting reform bill disparagingly coined “Jim Crow 2.0” in 2021. According to critics, this measure –Senate Bill 202 — was a bald-faced attempt to suppress voters, but supporters claimed it was a commonsense reform to secure the vote. After some particularly long, testy debates, the measure became law. While there were both positives and some drawbacks to the measure, it wasn’t the disaster some claimed.
Following its enactment, Georgians set the record for the highest midterm election turnout in the Peach State’s history — suggesting the doomsayers were largely mistaken. Gov. Brian Kemp — who is a big proponent of the law — has repeatedly stated his thoughts on it: “In Georgia, it is easy to vote and hard to cheat – and I’m going to continue working to keep it that way.”
Given its touted successes, it would be understandable to assume that further voting reforms are either unneeded, not worth the effort or impractical to roll out with Georgia facing some consequential elections later this year. However, you’d be wrong to think that. Numerous voting bills are snaking through the legislative process — some of which deserve serious attention.
Among these proposals is Senate Bill 355 by Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, which aims to forbid the use of ranked-choice voting in local, state and federal elections — except for overseas voters like those in the military. For those who don’t know what ranked-choice voting is, it is a method of voting in numerous other states whereby voters can rank candidates in order of their preference, although they can opt to only vote for their favorite. If no candidate receives the majority of first-choice votes, then that triggers an instant run-off.
In this phase, “The candidate who did the worst is eliminated, and that candidate’s voters’ ballots are redistributed to their second-choice pick. In other words, if you ranked a losing candidate as your first choice, and the candidate is eliminated, then your vote still counts: It just moves to your second-choice candidate,” explained Time Magazine.
The beauty of ranked-choice voting is that incredibly expensive, time-consuming runoffs associated with our current system could become a thing of the past, which is something to celebrate. Kennesaw State University pegged the cost of Georgia’s 2020 senatorial runoffs at $75 million, and it took weeks from election day to determine a victor. Meanwhile, voters were inundated with campaign ads during the holidays.
Ranked-choice voting is not for everyone, and that’s fine. In fact, Robertson listed a number of out-of-state organizations who support his endeavor to ban it. But aside from their personal qualms, Senate Bill 355 seems wholly unnecessary. Ranked-choice voting isn’t a legal form of voting for those in Georgia — only for certain overseas voters whom the bill wouldn’t affect. So why ban something that’s already impermissible? This is tantamount to making existing crimes, like speeding and jaywalking, double-super illegal with another law restating the fact.
Despite questions existing around the anti-ranked-choice voting bill, another recently introduced Senate measure gives me some serious heartburn — Senate Bill 367 by Sen. Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville. If passed, it would outlaw the use of voting drop boxes, which I am particularly fond of. They permit voters to fill out absentee ballots and, instead of mailing them in, drop off their ballots by hand. This process removes any doubt over whether the United States Postal Service will lose the ballot, and guarantees that voters don’t have to wait in long lines on election day.
Drop boxes haven’t always been legal in Georgia, but during the pandemic, they were permitted under emergency authorization. Then in 2021 under Senate Bill 202, the Legislature formally legalized them, but instituted several provisions to prevent fraud and tampering, including limiting the number and location of drop boxes and requiring that they remain under surveillance. Drop boxes are a win for voters; they expand access to different voting options and, along with absentee voting anti-fraud measures, make cheating difficult.
Regardless of this, it is possible that the Legislature will outlaw drop boxes, which seems to cut against Gov. Kemp’s mantra of making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.” What’s more, this would go into effect before the general elections later this year. Changing the rules just before an election seems as though it would create confusion and foster distrust in the system. Given that Georgia already seems like the election denialism capital of the universe — following Stacey Abrams’ defeat in 2018 and Donald Trump’s in 2020 — it might be unwise to give conspiracy theorists more fodder for their baseless claims.