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Justice Department Sues Georgia Over Voter-Suppression Law

Georgia’s new law includes 16 provisions that further complicate the voting process.

Georgia’s new law includes 16 provisions that further complicate the voting process. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaking at a press conference on June 25, 2021. (Image via Courthouse News Service)

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Justice Department brought a federal complaint Friday against the state of Georgia over the voting restrictions it passed after no court found evidence of fraud in the 2020 election.  

Georgia Republicans passed and signed the law known as Senate Bill 202 in March. Among other restrictions, the bill limits the hours of ballot drop boxes so they can only be used during voting hours, adds identification requirements for absentee ballots, and bans food and water at the polls. 

The law was one of the first that gained traction as conservative activists cited baseless allegations of voter fraud to protest former President Donald Trump's failure to secure a second term. In retaliation to the bill, Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game from the state, which was set to host the championship on July 13 in Atlanta's Truist Park. Coca-Cola and Delta, two of Georgia's largest employers, also issued statements denouncing the legislation.

At a press conference Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Georgia's legislation was “enacted with the purpose of abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote.” 

The government's complaint alleges that several provisions in the bill — like banning government from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications, shortening the deadline to request absentee ballots and prohibiting the counting of out-of-precinct ballots cast before 5 p.m. on Election Day — have a “cumulative and discriminatory effect” on Black voters. Garland says such effects were “known to lawmakers,” who nevertheless still adopted the law. 

“The right of all eligible citizens to vote is the central pillar of our democracy, the right from which all other rights ultimately flow,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference. “This lawsuit is the first step of many we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted; and that every voter has access to accurate information.” 

Friday's lawsuit comes on the eighth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Shelby County v. Holder decision, which effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. 

“The provisions we are challenging reduce access to absentee voting at each step of the process, pushing more Black voters to in-person voting, where they will be more likely than white voters to confront long lines,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said at Friday's presser.  

As head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, Clarke will oversee the litigation, alongside Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. Both women previously worked as civil rights attorneys. 

“The right to vote is one of the most central rights in our democracy and protecting the right to vote for all Americans is at the core of the Civil Rights Division’s mission,” she said. “Laws adopted with a racially motivated purpose, like Georgia Senate Bill 202, simply have no place in democracy today.” 

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke speaking at a press conference on Friday, June 25, 2021. Behind her, from left to right are Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. (Image via Courthouse News Service)

The Justice Department will also launch a task force to combat threats against election administrators and poll workers. In a memo to staff, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco emphasized the department's "long history of protecting every American’s right to vote.” 

“To protect the franchise for all voters, we must identify threats against those responsible for administering elections, whether federal, state, or local,” she wrote. “A threat to any election official, worker, or volunteer is, at bottom, a threat to democracy.” 

The agency’s Criminal Division, Civil Rights Division, National Security Division and the FBI will collaborate to identify these threats and prosecute those found committing a crime.  

Categories / Civil Rights, Government, Politics

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