ATLANTA — New provisions from Georgia election reform law Senate Bill 189 took effect Wednesday, focused on absentee ballot storage, voter registration and residency and separating ballots and elections for county-specific decisions from general elections for certain items.
Now that January 2025 is here, provisions in SB 189 related to voter challenges and unhoused Georgia voters will now take effect, though most of the law’s provisions began on July 1, 2024.
Both Fair Fight Action and the American Civil Liberties Union have contested the law, which also removed the Secretary of State from Georgia’s State Board of Elections.
“By signing SB 189 to become law, Brian Kemp delivered a gift to MAGA election deniers. He’s solidified his legacy as a vote suppressor, building on his signature anti-voter law from 2021 with a new law inspired by conspiracy theorists who continue to dispute the results of the 2020 election. With a new election on the horizon, Kemp is buttressing his pledge to MAGA, giving them new power to target Black, brown, rural, unhoused, and disabled populations and legislating harassment for already overburdened election workers. But in spite of every barrier formed against them, Georgians continue to show up to vote. And we will not stop fighting to ensure free and fair elections for all,” Fair Fight Action said in a previous statement.
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Similarly, the ACLU pushed back on the bill, saying it adds barriers to voters and election administrators in Georgia while lowering barriers for what it said were biased and baseless voter challenges.
“SB 189 is a step back for voters’ rights and voting access in the state of Georgia,” Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia said in a statement, previously. “Most importantly, this bill will require already overburdened election workers to spend time processing unnecessary voter challenges. As always, elected state officials should work to make voting easier and not more difficult for Georgia citizens. We are committed to protecting Georgia voters and will see the governor in court.”
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In September, the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda filed suit over the law in federal court, though lawmakers who supported the bill believe it will remain in effect despite those legal efforts.
“The legal challenges to SB 189 were anticipated. It was crafted with the intent to withstand any such challenges, and we are confident that the state’s position will prevail, ensuring SB 189 remains the law of the land,” State Senate Ethics Committee member Max Burns said in September.
Opponents of the law argue that college dormitories, senior and nursing facilities, and homeless shelters may be zoned as nonresidential, Channel 2 Action News reported previously.
The provisions that took effect Wednesday are the bill’s fourth, sixth and ninth sections.
What does each section do?
Section 4
Section 4 reads that “the mailing address for election purposes of any person of this state who is homeless and without a permanent address shall be the registrar’s office of the county in which such person resides.”
More specifically, “Proof of ownership or rental of a post office box or private mailbox service address within a particular jurisdiction shall not constitute sufficient grounds to establish a person’s residency within that particular jurisdiction.”
That means that for Georgians who do not have a traditional residence, be that a house or apartment unit that they are paying for through rent, mortgage, etc., a rented post office box won’t count to prove they lie where they say they do when it comes to voting. As pointed out by the organizations suing to block this provision of the law, college students registered to vote based on their dormitory addresses and others living in the state without a permanent address will not be able to vote in the jurisdiction they are staying in.
This would apply to homeless shelters, potentially, as well as other temporary accommodations.
Instead, these individuals would need to register to vote with their registrar’s office address for the county.
Section 6
Section 6 says that for election superintendents can give electors physical ballots for special primaries, special elections, runoff elections or special elections to present a question to residents and states that these elections would need to be independent from statewide elections or presidential primaries.
Section 9
Section 9 focuses on the methods officials may use to securely store absentee ballots and prevent tampering.
Under the provision, boards of registrars and absentee ballot clerks will have to store absentee ballots, unopened, and in a way to prevent unauthorized access. While that was already in law, now officials will also have to document any authorized access to these ballots that occur before the day of the election to count votes.
The law also says absentee ballots, once accepted, will be stored securely in either a sealed container or an appropriately secured room to prevent unauthorized access or tampering.
Additionally, for ballots to be accessed at the now-required secured storage and sealed containers the law now requires “at least three persons who are registrars, deputy registrars, poll workers or absentee ballot clerks shall be present.” The law also requires that the containers be unsealed and verified for integrity while absentee ballot envelopes are opened and while they are being scanned for vote-counting purposes.
Once all of the ballots are scanned, the scanned ballots will then have to be stored securely with multiple seals, which must be recorded in a chain of custody document, and signed for. Absentee ballot votes must also be counted and reported no later than 8 p.m. on the day of a primary election, general election or runoff election, or within one hour of all polls closing in the county, whichever happens first.
SB 189 says that as ballots are counted, they must be placed into sealed boxes or bags that have to be witnessed and verified by those taking custody of them, who must also sign and date and time the moment they receive them. A similar process must be undertaken for rejected absentee ballots through a process specified by the Secretary of State’s Office.
All such ballot boxes must come with chain of custody documentation and remain sealed if not in the direct control of poll officers or while being transferred to a different room or facility for vote counting.
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