Georgia legislators have filed a bill that would require that government officials mail absentee ballot applications only to registered voters.
The Georgia General Assembly’s website identified State Sen. Max Burns (R-Sylvania) as the bill’s primary sponsor.
“All persons or entities, other than the Secretary of State, election superintendents, boards of registrars, and absentee ballot clerks, that send applications for absentee ballots to electors in a primary, election, or runoff shall mail such applications only to eligible registered electors who have not already requested, received, or voted an absentee ballot in the primary, election, or runoff,” according to the language of the bill.
“Any such person or entity shall compare the mail distribution list being used by the person or entity for such mailing with the most current registered electors list maintained by the Secretary of State and remove all persons from the list who are not registered electors. Any such entity shall also compare the mail distribution list with the most recent information available on which electors have requested, been issued, or voted an absentee ballot in the primary, election, or runoff and shall remove the names of such electors from the mail distribution list.”
Members of the State Election Board would impose sanctions on people who violate this proposed law, according to the language of the bill.
As The Georgia Star News reported last week, eight members of the Georgia General Assembly have filed legislation that would, if enacted into law, increase penalties for election fraud within the state.
Specifically, the bill would make it a felony to “tamper with, alter, destroy, modify, or falsify the electronic data constituting the official returns or votes cast in a primary, election, or runoff.”
This bill is only one of many that legislators have filed this session to address what they said were voting irregularities after the November 2020 presidential elections. U.S. President Joe Biden carried Georgia and ultimately defeated then-U.S. President Donald Trump in that election.
As The Star News reported last week, another bill in the legislature would require that election officials immediately count and tabulate ballots when the polls close.
Also as reported last week, Georgia State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock) introduced Voter ID legislation that she said would prohibit people from using certain types of identification for in-person voting.
That bill, HB 228, would, if enacted into law, require Georgia residents who are not U.S. citizens to have “BEARER NOT A U.S. CITIZEN — NOT VOTER ID” printed on their licenses, permits and/or identification cards. People with this information on their forms of identification could not present them to a poll worker to vote, according to Byrd’s legislation.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
