Amistad Project praises Georgia Senate for advancing bill to protect absentee voting process

SB 67 strengthens identification requirements for absentee ballot applications

AMHERST, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, February 18, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today, the Georgia Senate Ethics Committee approved SB 67, which requires voters to provide proof of identification when requesting an absentee ballot. The Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, the leading election integrity group, welcomed the action by Georgia legislators and urged the full General Assembly to swiftly approve the bill.

“This legislation represents a major step toward restoring faith in elections and reasserting the legislature’s constitutional authority to manage elections,” said Phill Kline, director of the Amistad Project. “Verifying that everyone who casts an absentee ballot in Georgia is actually a legal resident and an eligible voter is a basic, common-sense way to safeguard electoral integrity.”

Kline noted that the sudden and massive increase in the use of absentee ballots — often accomplished by executive fiat without legislative input or approval — was a key factor eroding public confidence in the accuracy of election results in numerous states during the 2020 election cycle. A recent independent report commissioned by the Georgia State Election Board revealed “myriad problems” with the absentee voting process in Fulton County, including “sloppy” data entry and chain-of-custody procedures.

“Absentee voting necessarily creates vulnerabilities that do not exist with in-person voting, which is why it’s crucial that election officials employ every tool at their disposal to ensure that the final vote count accurately reflects the results of a free and fair election in which every valid vote is counted and every invalid vote is rejected,” Kline explained. “SB 67 will provide an effective tool to do just that.”

In addition, Kline noted that SB 67 strikes a good balance between promoting ballot access and safeguarding ballot integrity by allowing voters to request absentee ballots through a web portal while also prohibiting the secretary of state from issuing unsolicited absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in the state.

“The identification requirement makes it possible to safely allow absentee ballot requests to be submitted online,” Kline said. “At the same time, the legislation prudently prevents the secretary of state from flooding the state with absentee ballot applications, which happened in Michigan last year and raised significant concerns about election integrity in that state.”

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Jillian Anderson
ProActive
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