A new law went into effect in Georgia this month that makes it easier for people to attempt to kick their neighbors off the rolls through voter challenges. Georgia already made voter challenges far too easy. Now, voters in the state face increased risk of losing their right to vote or being forced to defend it at public hearings, and election deniers have wide latitude to spread disinformation and waste election official time. These challenges are fueled by false claims about the 2020 election being “stolen,” including allegations that ineligible people voted, even though all evidence shows there was no widespread fraud in that election.
The effects of the new law, Senate Bill 189, are already being felt. On July 1, the Bibb County party chair challenged 243 voters; the local board put 45 of those voters into “challenged status,” meaning they will have to take extra steps to have their ballots counted this fall.
Some of the county election boards tasked with implementing this undemocratic law are taking steps to mitigate the damage. Fulton County’s board advised that it will continue to apply federal safeguards for voters, that challengers must have specific evidence as opposed to the generalized evidence they often present, and that the board will not remove anyone from the rolls on the basis of clerical errors such as a typo in an address. It even gives specific examples, including that simple list matching is not enough to remove someone from the rolls. All counties in the state should follow this example.
In Georgia, any registered voter can file an unlimited number of voter challenges with their local elections board alleging that people on the voter rolls are not eligible to vote. Activists have filed around half a million challenges going back to the January 2021 Senate runoffs in the state.
These mass challenges are almost always based on weak evidence that doesn’t justify removing voters from the rolls. For example, comparing names on the National Change of Address forms (what you fill out when you want your mail forwarded) with names on purchased, static copies of the voter rolls. Yet challengers frequently fail to account for different people with the same name or that someone only temporarily wants their mail forwarded. A federal court recently found that the tactics used in mass challenges filed in Georgia in 2021 were “shoddy and rife with errors.”
The good news is that county election boards have consistently rejected these challenges over the last few years. Over and over, the boards said that challengers didn’t provide enough evidence to remove anyone from the rolls. Local officials who reviewed the challenges described them as “guesswork” and “inaccurate assertions.”
These failures did not deter challengers. Instead, some groups have doubled down, creating software that can automate the process of generating mass challenges. These tools make bringing challenges easier but don’t fix the problems with the methodology.
Even when denied, voter challenges present major problems. They make election officials waste countless hours. A 2022 challenge to 37,000 voters in Gwinnett County forced 5 to 10 election staffers to work “all day, every day, six days a week” for multiple weeks and did not turn up a single ineligible voter. In fact, in at least one case, proponents of mass challenges have stated that their goal is to overwhelm election officials; the proponents can then sell the officials “solutions” that are really just the challenge lists by another name.
Moreover, challenges can be intimidating. Voters may become afraid when they learn their name is on a list submitted to the government or they get a notice that their right to vote is in jeopardy.
Challenges also spread disinformation when people use challenges as “proof” that ineligible people are voting. No state’s rolls are perfect, but there is no evidence to support such claims in Georgia or elsewhere.
Rather than reassess their strategy, some groups pressed to change the rules. Georgia S.B. 189 was the result. The local boards must hold hearings for all challenged voters when there is “probable cause,” and the new law specifies that certain types of information — including some known to be unreliable — meet that standard. Clearly faulty submissions can no longer be brushed aside for what they are, meaning weak challenges will force officials to send voters notices that they must defend their rights at a hearing. This is a potentially intimidating process even for voters who stay on the rolls and a headache for officials.
Also concerning are all the questions the law doesn’t answer: mainly, what must be proven at a hearing to remove a voter. Consider a challenge on the basis that a voter is deceased. Is the challenger’s word enough? Could a newspaper obituary suffice? Is a death certificate required? The open-ended nature of the law invites widespread challenges while leaving already swamped election workers to figure out the details.
In an era of seemingly endless attacks on voters and elections, states should be protecting voters and election workers. Georgia has instead offered its voter rolls to an election denial experiment. Rather than accept the good news — the state’s elections are not plagued by fraud — individuals unhappy with recent election outcomes have changed the rules of the game to try to create the appearance of cheating where none exists.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.