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The Biden Justice Department Contentious Assault on Election Integrity in Georgia

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The Biden Department of Justice announced a lawsuit against Georgia’s election law which supporters say seeks to preserve the security of its electoral system.

Georgia has come under fire from private businesses, progressive organizations and members of the Democratic Party, including President Joe Biden, for passing legislation that reversed several Democratic-driven ballot measures within the state.

“The U.S. Justice Department announced today that it filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia, the Georgia Secretary of State, and the Georgia State Election Board over recent voting procedures adopted by Georgia Senate Bill 202, which was signed into law in March 2021. The United States’ complaint challenges provisions of Senate Bill 202 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.’

Part of the Department of Justice’s official announcement of the lawsuit against the state of Georgia.

“The United States’ complaint contends that several provisions of Senate Bill 202 were adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race. The Justice Department’s lawsuit alleges that the cumulative and discriminatory effect of these laws—particularly on Black voters—was known to lawmakers and that lawmakers adopted the law despite this.”

Biden’s persecution of Georgia

For the Biden administration, the law is racially discriminatory, arguing it restricts voting rights in majority black and Latino counties which tend to vote more Democratic.

However, the debate over the election law has become politically biased and both President Biden and other Democratic politicians have made false assertions regarding the law, exaggerating and misrepresenting various portions of the legislation’s content.

For example, Biden said that the new legislation restricts voting hours, harming the voting rights of working people. However, that is not entirely true. In fact, Washington Post fact-checkers gave “Four Pinocchios” — the worst rating — to Biden’s claims, labeling them false.

Georgia nueva ley electoral, demanda departamento de justicia
Voter in Georgia casts his ballot (EFE)

Republicans slammed Democrats and the mainstream media for unfairly stigmatizing the law without objectively analyzing it.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who famously challenged former President Trump’s allegations of massive voter fraud in Georgia, published an article in the National Review where he analyzed the legislation in detail. Raffensperger explained that Georgia does not suppress the right to vote, but on the contrary, the law only contains common-sense measures after all the controversy that arose during the presidential elections last November 2020.

Another Republican who criticized the news treatment of the election law was Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), who decried the work of the press’s analysis of the legislation on his Twitter account: “The media had a responsibility to get behind the political rhetoric on Georgia’s voting law and provide analysis and truth. Instead, most spread partisan disinformation and inflamed passions and division, further blurring the line between social media and a responsible free press.”

What does Georgia’s election law actually say?

Georgia’s new election law is not perfect, however, it is far from being legislation akin to the racist laws of the Jim Crow era, as many Democrats have said to the public.

Democrats criticized the election law for supposedly restricting hours and early voting, while the law actually improves voting hours.

For example, the law sets statewide voting hours from 9 AM-5 PM, giving each county the ability to extend the hours to 7 AM-7 PM. Under previous election law, early voting hours were set at “normal business hours,” which disadvantaged voters in some precincts where election staff worked until noon.

An official absentee ballot box in Georgia (EFE).

Also, the legislation states the need to offer at least two Saturdays for early voting and also gives the possibility to counties to have two optional Sundays, an improvement over previous regulations.

This Georgia election law also mandates that, minimally, there must be 17 days before the election for early voting. In New York, it is just 10 days, while in Delaware, President Biden’s home state, early voting does not even exist.

Democrats and voting rights activists also criticized the law for requiring voter IDs for verification of mail-in ballots and the shortening of the time frame in which the state mails ballots. Many argued that the African American electorate did not have IDs, however, that is also false, as 97% of registered voters in Georgia have a license number associated with their voter registration.

In addition, Georgia would only ask for the ID number and not the document itself.

In short, the Department of Justice is suing a state in the union based on biased and partisan opinions and analysis

Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.

Contacto: [email protected]

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