Since the recent passage and signing of Senate Bill 202 — the state’s election reform bill — Georgia has been under fire. Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, the fall-out with corporate giants like Coke and Delta, threats by President Joe Biden to have the Justice Department look into the law while comparing it to Jim Crow era rule, and state legislators being called racists.
But Thursday a new report from the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) ranked Georgia’s election access among the top tier of states in the country following the passage of SB 202. Georgia earned that ranking with both no-excuse absentee ballot voting and 19 days of early voting, including two mandatory Saturdays and two optional Sundays.
The Center for Election Innovation and Research is a non-partisan non-profit that works to “build voter trust and confidence, increase voter participation, and improve the efficiency of election administration.” The organization “works directly with both Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State and other election officials in states all over the country.” Its founder, David Becker, “served for seven years as a senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.”
The report is the result of analysis of data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of April 12, 2021, grading each state by absentee voting and in person voting access. The states were split into three tiers based on access to absentee balloting and in-person voting. Georgia joined 34 other states and the District of Columbia in the top tier with no-excuse absentee ballot voting and early, in-person voting. While Georgia has had no-excuse absentee ballot voting since 2005 and has had no-excuse, early, in-person voting since 2004, the report acknowledged that by passing SB 202, Georgia expanded its number of early voting days from 16 to a mandatory minimum of 17 including two required Saturdays plus two optional Sundays.
“This report demonstrates objectively and conclusively that liberals have spun their own Big Lie about SB 202, and the media has echoed it unquestioningly,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Among the states in the second tier — because they require an excuse to vote absentee– are perennial blue states New York and Delaware. Kentucky also is among the middle tier but has received praise from liberals and the media alike despite having only 3 days of early, in-person voting and requiring an excuse to vote by absentee ballot. In the lowest tier is blue state Connecticut, which does not have in-person, early voting and requires an excuse to vote absentee, according to information from the Secretary of State’s office.
