FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 24, 2021
Media contact: Ana Maria Rosato [email protected]
ATLANTA – The ACLU of Georgia opposes Senate Bill 202, another anti-voter bill that attacks absentee voting, criminalizes giving Georgians a drink of water to their neighbors, allows state takeover of county elections, and gut state funding for local elections, among others.
“Instead of celebrating the historic turnout we saw during the November election cycle, some Georgia legislators have decided to create unnecessary barriers for citizens who exercise their sacred and legal right to vote – the very right that affects the access to all other rights we enjoy as Americans,” said Christopher Bruce, political director of the ACLU of Georgia. “SB202 recklessly cuts voter access and with it the right of every citizen to participate in our democracy. We encourage the Georgia General Assembly to stop these efforts that make voting harder and instead to focus on protecting and expanding every Georgia citizen’s sacred, fundamental right to vote.”
Top 6 Issues with SB 202
First tier
- Allows the state legislature to take over county elections through control of the State Election Board (“SEB”) and the Secretary of State’s office (state takeover of county elections).
- Dramatically restricts absentee by mail voting (attack on absentee voting).
- Makes runoff elections virtually impossible to administer by moving them to 28 days after the general election (28-day runoff).
Second tier
- Criminalizes Georgians providing refreshments to their neighbors who are waiting in line to vote (line-warming ban).
- Disenfranchises most eligible voters on Election Day who cast provisional ballots inside their own counties but outside their one assigned polling location (disenfranchises out-of-precinct voters).
- Creates county budget shortfalls through cuts and unfunded mandates (overwhelms county budgets).
Media contact: Ana Maria Rosato,
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