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Explained: Georgia's new voting law that Biden called 'Jim Crow in 21st century'
The 98-page measure, which was signed into law on Thursday by Republican governor Brian Kemp, intends to make several changes in the way elections are conducted in the state.
US President Joe Biden criticised the new voting law in the state of Georgia, in a statement on Friday, and compared it to Jim Crow laws, put in place in the 19th century to legalise racial segregation and disenfranchise Black citizens in America’s South. "This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end," Biden said. Biden said that the law was an attack on the US constitution and the justice department was “taking a look” at it.
The 98-page measure, which was signed into law on Thursday by Republican governor Brian Kemp, intends to make several changes in the way elections are conducted in the state. The Democrat party has said that the law will restrict voting access, especially for people of colour. The Republican party claims that the new law will help to restore the confidence which people have lost in Georgia’s elections after the 2020 elections.
Why is the law being imposed in Georgia?
The state of Georgia was at the centre of the US presidential election last year as it was termed as one of the battleground states. The state had continued to vote for the Republican party but this changed in the 2020 election as Biden became the first Democrat candidate to win Georgia since 1992. Analysts believed that the state turned blue as a large number of people of colour voted for the Democrat party.
After the elections, the state became the centre of claims of voter fraud that were made by former president Donald Trump and the Republican party, so much so, that Trump pressured elected officials in the state, repeatedly, to investigate the claims. In the two Senate run-off races in January, Democrats took control of the US Senate as Georgia Republicans lost. Despite the gains made by the Democrats, the government in Georgia is still controlled by the Republicans which brought the Election Integrity Act of 2021.
What does the new law say?
The law gives the state election board powers to interfere in the election offices of 159 counties of the state and imposes ID requirements for absentee ballots, replacing the current system that required only signatures. The law also limits the use of ballot drop boxes which are said to make voting easier. The law also makes handing out anything, including food and water to people queuing to vote, a misdemeanour. The new law also shortens the time for runoffs in the state from nine weeks to four weeks, thus reducing the span of runoffs in Georgia which is the only state in the US that mandates runoff elections between the top two candidates in case no candidate achieves a majority.
What will happen next?
Three groups, the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter and Rise Inc, have already filed lawsuits against the law saying the law violates the First and 14th amendments of the US Constitution and some parts of the federal Voting Rights Act. “These unjustified measures will individually and cumulatively operate to impose unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote, to deny or abridge the voting rights of Black Georgians, and to deny Black voters in Georgia an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process and elect candidates of their choice,” the groups said in the lawsuit.
