World War II pilots coined various versions of the expression, “If you’re not taking flak, you’re not over the target.”
Warriors for election integrity in swing-state Georgia have encountered heavy fire in recent weeks as the Republican-controlled state Senate prepares to debate Georgia House Bill 976 on Thursday — the last day of the session.
Listening to Democrats and their lawfare allies, you would think the package of provisions aimed at greater transparency and accountability in elections will turn the clock back to the Jim Crow era (which Democrats created, by the way). For the race-baiting left, any mention of integrity in elections from the right equals “voter suppression.”
“House Bill 976 threatens democracy,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) direly insists in a mass mailing urging Georgians to email their lawmakers to vote against the bill.
Curiously, the ACLU, a crusader against voter ID, clean voter rolls, and other basic election integrity safeguards, claims HB 976, “Threatens Election Integrity” by allowing “third party databases to be used as evidence” to prove voter ineligibility.
Integrity appears to be a problem for the ACLU in general. The bill’s language allows only government-created or recognized databases to be used for challenges, not isolated third-party databases.
The ACLU, defender of big-spending social programs, laughably demands the elections bill “Wastes Taxpayers Dollars” and “Overburdens Election Workers” by requiring homeless people to use the county registrar’s office as their mailing address for registering to vote. “This would require county staff to implement new processes to handle this mail during an election year,” the mailer asserts.
It’s all designed, according to the far-left’s law firm, to “create undue burdens for voters and election officials, and disproportionately impact voters of color.”
Sounds scary. But the legislation does none of those things.
Here’s What It Actually Does
As The Federalist reported on Wednesday, House Bill 976 improves ballot chain-of-custody procedures, makes certified absentee ballots subject to public records laws, and lays out standards for when parties and individuals may challenge invalid voter roll records. Democrat “voter rights” activists have blasted the tens of thousands of challenges in recent years, but the red flags have largely been driven by the refusal of election administrators in Georgia’s major metro counties to deal with invalid voter records.
Data analyst Mark Davis found stacks of individuals whose residency information raised questions about their eligibility to vote in the 2020 election. Davis, president of Data Productions Inc., has filed Section 230 voter challenges based on his extensive research. Leftist big-money interests backing Stacey Abrams, the failed Democrat candidate for governor, failed in their lawsuit attacking Davis, as well as True the Vote, which conducted its own analysis of Georgia voter rolls.
House Bill 976, in part, aims to stop election officials from rejecting appropriate challenges, election integrity experts say.
The left is apoplectic over the bill. That’s a good sign for anyone who values election integrity in Georgia.
As to the ACLU’s allegations, HB 976 threatens fraudsters, not democracy. It clarifies conditions for challenging invalid voter roll records and helps ensure challenges are based on corroborating facts. Those clarifications can actually reduce the burden on election officials or voters. Furthermore, the bill language is color-blind and has nothing to do with the race of any voter.
On the ACLU’s charges that the package threatens election integrity:
- HB 976 greatly improves election integrity with open record ballots, ballot chain of custody, and voter roll cleanup provisions
- The language allows only government-created or recognized databases to be used for challenges, not isolated third-party databases
On charges that the bill wastes taxpayer money:
- Clarifying invalid voter roll challenge criteria does not require additional costs, taxpayer dollars, or resources from election offices
- The clarifications do not expand criteria for voter challenges and, in fact, have limited them from using unreliable, out-of-date, third-party databases
On charges that the bill overburdens election workers:
- Requiring election workers to help homeless people get their ballots should not be a burden
- The legislature has no control over the U.S. Postal Service’s delivery to those who are homeless or other potential voters
- There is no evidence that HB 976 would increase challenges of voter roll records by simply clarifying challenge criteria
“After working for 20 years to advance the cause of election integrity in Georgia, it is infuriating for me to see our legislators attacked just for sincerely trying to perfect and pass election security bills that benefit all Georgia voters,” said Garland Favorito, co-founder of Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA). Favorito is a career information technology professional recognized statewide as a leading election integrity expert, specializing in usage and risks of electronic voting systems.
