Local Election Officials in Georgia Oppose G.O.P. Election Bill

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Ian Bassin 🇺🇦
@ianbassin
The Georgia GOP is going so far to further mess with elections that even local Republican election officials have had enough and are testifying against the Republican legislature's efforts.
A State Senate Ethics Committee hearing for H.B. 1464 taking place at a legislative office in Atlanta. The bill would grant the Georgia Bureau of Investigation jurisdiction to investigate election fraud and election crimes.
nytimes.com
Local Election Officials in Georgia Oppose G.O.P. Election Bill
As Republicans rush to pass a second round of new voting and election rules, a bipartisan group of election officials is fighting back.
4:19 PM · Mar 28, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/us/politics/georgia-election-bill.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/NVKQ2

ATLANTA — A year ago, when Georgia Republicans passed a mammoth law of election measures and voting restrictions, many local election officials felt frustrated and sidelined, as their concerns about resources, ballot access and implementation went largely ignored.

This year, Republicans have returned with a new bill — and the election officials are pushing back.

A bipartisan coalition of county-level election administrators — the people who carry out the day-to-day work of running elections — is speaking out against the latest Republican measure. At a legislative hearing on Monday, they warned that the proposal would create additional burdens on a dwindling force of election workers and that the provisions could lead to more voter intimidation.

“You’re going to waste time, and you’re going to cause me to lose poll workers,” said Joel Natt, a Republican member of the Forsyth County board of elections, referring to a provision in the bill that he said would force workers to count hundreds of blank sheets of paper. “I have 400 poll workers that work for our board. That is 400 people that I could see telling me after May, ‘Have a nice life,’ and it’s hard enough to keep them right now.”

Among other provisions, the bill would expand the reach of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation over election crimes; limit private funding of elections; empower partisan poll watchers; and establish new requirements for tracking absentee ballots as they are verified and counted.

*snip*