The latest on Georgia’s new law suppressing voting access

Georgia yesterday became the first presidential battleground to impose new voting restrictions following President Biden’s victory in the state.

The state’s changing demographics had made the longtime Republican stronghold a key political battleground last year. In November, Biden became the first Democrat in nearly three decades to win the state. And strong voter turnout in January helped send two Democrats to the US Senate, flipping control of the chamber to their party.

Republicans cast Georgia’s measure, dubbed The Election Integrity Act of 2021, as necessary to boost confidence in elections after the 2020 election saw Trump make repeated, unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

By changing its election laws, Gov. Brian Kemp said of the law Thursday, “Georgia will take another step toward ensuring our elections are secure, accessible, and fair.”

Kemp, who is up for reelection next year, had refused to give in to former President Trump’s demands last year that he overturn Biden’s victory — earning Trump’s public condemnation. But on Thursday, Kemp said “alarming issues” with the 2020 election demonstrated the need for change.

During Thursday’s floor debate, Republican state Rep. Barry Fleming — a key architect of the new law — argued it would provide “more accountability” to the election process in the state.

Officials with Heritage Action for America — one of the national Republican groups leading efforts to clamp down on ballot access in the name of “election integrity” — praised Kemp, lawmakers and the 20,000 conservative activists it said had lobbied lawmakers to pass the overhaul. Georgia’s new law makes “the state a model for the rest of the country,” Heritage officials said.

Voting rights advocates and state leaders, meanwhile, say the state’s rapid-fire action — and plans in other Republican-controlled states to pass restrictions of their own — underscores the need for federal legislation to set a national baseline for voting rules.

Stacey Abrams, the founder of Fair Fight Action and a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, said the state’s Republicans showed they were intent on “reviving Georgia’s dark past of racist voting laws.”

The Georgia bill underwent major change in recent days — growing from a narrow, two-page bill into a sweeping omnibus package to becoming law in a little over a week. Activists and Black religious leaders in the state held rallies and threatened corporate boycotts in an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt its progress through the General Assembly.

Advocates said they were alarmed by measures that will allow any Georgian to lodge an unlimited number of challenges to voter registrations and eligibility, saying it could put a target on voters of color. And Democrats in the Georgia Senate on Thursday lambasted measures that boot the secretary of state as chairman of the state elections board and allow lawmakers to install his replacement, giving lawmakers three of five appointments.

Biden, meanwhile, repeated his call today for Congress to pass voting rights legislation, adding, “This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end.”

The bill passed in Georgia is part of a larger effort by GOP-led legislatures across the country to pass restrictive voting measures in key states like Arizona, Michigan and Florida.

As of February, state legislators in 43 states have introduced more than 250 bills with restrictive voting provisions, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called on Congress to strengthen voting rights a day after Georgia passed a sweeping elections bill.

She went on to call Georgia’s new law restricting voting access “abusive.”  

Asked if doing away with the filibuster was a step she was willing to take, Harris followed in-line with President Biden’s comments, saying that it will be the Senate that makes that decision but added, “we do have to get to a place where it’s not so easy to block progress because the American people need us to act.”

“Well, I think the President was quite clear and by the way I thought he did a really great job in his press conference yesterday and answered everything for over an hour,” she said.

“He was very clear which is that we should take a look at the filibuster. He made his thoughts clear about the talking filibuster and ultimately, it’s going to be the Senate that’s going to make that decision,” she added. “But let me just add that we do have to get to a place where it’s not so easy to block progress because the American people need us to act.”

President Biden said Friday that the Justice Department is taking a look at Georgia’s restrictive voting law.

When asked if there was anything the White House could do to protect voting rights in Georgia, Biden told reporters on a tarmac in Delaware, “We’re working on that right now. We don’t know quite exactly what we can do at this point. The Justice Department’s taking a look as well.”

Asked about the strong words in a statement about the law he put out earlier Friday, Biden said the words were “not as strong as I was really thinking.” 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp later responded to Biden’s remarks on the Georgia voting bill in a statement today, saying, “There is nothing ‘Jim Crow’ about requiring a photo or state-issued ID to vote by absentee ballot – every Georgia voter must already do so when voting in-person. President Biden, the left, and the national media are determined to destroy the sanctity and security of the ballot box.”

Voting rights advocates say Georgia’s new law restricting voting access — and plans in other Republican-controlled states to pass restrictions of their own — underscores the need for federal legislation to set a national baseline for voting rules.

In a statement released this afternoon on Georgia’s voting law, President Biden repeated his call for Congress to pass voting rights legislation, adding, “This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It must end.”

House Democrats have passed a sweeping bill that includes a number of voting reforms, including automatic national voter registration.

Stacey Abrams, the founder of Fair Fight Action and a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, said the state’s Republicans showed they were intent on “reviving Georgia’s dark past of racist voting laws.”

“Now, more than ever, Americans must demand federal action to protect voting rights,” she said in a statement.

Currently, 18 states and Washington, DC, have automatic registration. Expanding that requirement nationwide could enfranchise 50 million Americans, according to the Brennan Center.

The bill would do a lot more, including putting an end to partisan gerrymandering, by which parties draw congressional lines to protect their incumbents, mandating a two-week early voting period and more.

But it would require a supermajority — at least 60 votes — to overcome a promised GOP filibuster in the Senate. Democrats have suggested changing Senate rules specifically for this bill, but it’s not clear all Democrats would support the rule change.

CNN’s Kelly Mena, Fredreka Schouten, Dianne Gallagher and Pamela Kirkland contributed reporting to this post.

President Biden continued to rail against the newly passed Georgia elections law on Friday, telling reporters outside the White House that the law has nothing to do with fairness or decency.

When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to comment on the new law, Biden called it “an atrocity.”

“Give me a break,” he added.

Moments before walking toward Marine One, Biden released a statement calling the law “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”

Watch the moment:

Video Ad Feedback

5d8b9b5d-35e5-46aa-9079-1f38e6675b9a.mp4

00:38 - Source: cnn

President Biden just released a statement calling the restrictive voting law passed in Georgia yesterday a “blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.”

The President also urged Congress to pass voting bills, including the For the People Act that was approved in the Democratic-led House earlier this month.

Biden said that instead of “celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote,” Republicans in the state “rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote.”

The President also added that he will take his case to the American people, “including Republicans who joined the broadest coalition of voters ever in this past election to put country before party.”

More on the law: Republicans in Georgia sped the sweeping elections bill into law Thursday. It passed both chambers of the state’s legislature in the span of a few hours. The measure imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it illegal to hand out food or water to people standing in line to vote.

The package is part of a national GOP effort that aims to restrict access to the ballot box following record turnout in the election. Republicans cast the measure as necessary to boost confidence in elections after the 2020 election saw Trump make repeated, unsubstantiated claims of fraud. Voting rights advocates say Georgia’s rapid-fire action — and plans in other Republican-controlled states to pass restrictions of their own — underscores the need for federal legislation to set a national baseline for voting rules.

Biden, in his first White House news conference Thursday, said that he will “do everything” in his power to halt efforts to restrict voting rights, saying that he thinks the efforts underway in the state legislatures are “un-American.”

CNN’s Kelly Mena, Fredreka Schouten, Dianne Gallagher and Pamela Kirkland contributed reporting to this post.

The White House is “deeply concerned by the actions that were taken by law enforcement” to arrest a Georgia state lawmaker late Thursday, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing Friday. 

“The largest concern here obviously beyond her being treated in the manner she was… is the law that was put into place,” she added. 

Asked if the President would be calling Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon, Psaki said she didn’t have “any calls to preview.” 

As CNN previously reported, Cannon was arrested and removed from the Georgia state Capitol on Thursday after passage of the state’s sweeping elections bill restricting voting access.

In a video posted to social media, a Georgia Capitol police officer speaks with the Democrat outside the door to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s office. 

After knocking on the office door during Kemp’s signing of SB 202, Cannon is seen being led away by several officers with her hands cuffed behind her back.

In a statement Thursday night, Georgia State Patrol said that at 6:33 p.m. local time, Cannon “was beating on the door to the Governor’s Office,” and, when told to stop, moved on to the Governor’s Ceremonial Office door marked with a “Governor’s Staff Only” sign and knocked on that door.

President Biden will release a statement later today on the sweeping election bill signed into law by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday, the White House said Friday. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the President is “worried” about the initiative, adding that the law makes it “more challenging, not easier to vote.” 

The new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

Psaki also said that Biden is “watching closely” and will be “engaging with members of Congress” to “prevent attacks on the sacred right to vote.” 

“When he was in Georgia, just two weeks ago, he met with Stacey Abrams while he was there and he will also continue to encourage and engage with outside leaders and activists on steps they can take,” Psaki said. “Obviously there’s a range of groups and organizations that may take legal action.”

“Some of that going to be more appropriate from outside of the White House,” she said. 

Abrams, the founder of Fair Fight Action and a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, said the state’s Republicans showed they were intent on “reviving Georgia’s dark past of racist voting laws.”

“Now, more than ever, Americans must demand federal action to protect voting rights,” she said in a statement.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, spoke about state lawmaker Rep. Park Cannon’s arrest and removal from the state Capitol on Thursday, after knocking on the office door during Gov. Brian Kemp’s signing of a sweeping election bill restricting voting access.

He added at the Friday news conference that he’ll “let the investigation play itself out.. maybe there’s something that I haven’t seen” but in the video all he saw was her “knocking” on the door.

“Contrast that with folks who staged a violent insurrection on the United States Capitol. Police officers and others were killed,” he said. “I want to know from those who are using the premise of that assault as the basis for a craven takeover of power in Georgia, why they’re OK with that and somehow the actions of a state legislator knocking on the door of a governor who is signing a law that impacts her constituents. Why her actions are somehow so dangerous and criminal that she got charged with two felonies?”

On the voting bill the Georgia legislature passed last night, Warnock said “as bad as it is” what they were trying to pass was “even worse.” 

He said the law, SB 202, “will allow for a hostile takeover of local boards of elections if the Georgia legislature filled with politicians doesn’t like the outcome of an election. It’s anti-democratic. It’s un-American.”

Warnock also argued this is “an interesting change in tune” for Kemp. “[Kemp] just said a couple years ago that everything was under control with our elections here in Georgia. Our own secretary of state said that the election that was held, this most recent election, was not rife with fraud as some have tried to suggest.”

“What’s the purpose behind all of this?” he asked. “So, you are literally going to make public policy based on a lie? Based on the feeling that some people have that things didn’t turn out the way they should have turned out? Is that how we make public policy? I thought we made public policy based on facts and data… if there’s one thing that’s clear, it’s that the Georgia election was certainly free of any consequential fraud.”

Voters fill in their ballots at polling booths for the presidential election in Concord, New Hampshire, on November 3, 2020. 

Republicans at the state level have moved swiftly to either roll back some easy access to voting or put new obstacles in the way of voters following losses in the 2020 presidential and US Senate elections. These moves have sparked a renewed battle over voting rights.

Here are answers to key questions about voting in the US and these GOP-led efforts to curb voting access:

Can’t everyone over 18 in the US vote? How can states restrict access?

Yes. It took a long time to get from white landowners voting in the first presidential election to the 24th Amendment, enacted in 1964, which says:

That did away with poll taxes and, paired with the Voting Rights Act, ended many of the Jim Crow-era tricks that kept many Black Americans from voting.

But not everyone over the age of 18 can vote — noncitizens and felons, in most places, although there are efforts to re-enfranchise felons. Notably, they can vote in Florida after voters there approved a ballot initiative in 2018.

States have the power to govern their own elections, but Congress has the power to place rules on them. And the courts often get involved.

Nearly every state requires some kind of voter registration and many require an ID to vote and there are many different versions of absentee voting and the hours during which people in different states can vote early or on Election Day.

Why not just have everyone vote at the same time and in the same way?

Election Day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. (It’s been that way for a long time.) But the US is a country of 50 states and more than 330 million people of varying degrees of education and engagement. There’s something to be said for flexibility. Many people work odd hours. They work multiple jobs. And the Constitution puts states in charge of their elections, although Congress can regulate them.

The difficulty is making sure everyone has the same access to the polls while also maintaining the necessary amount of security. A complication is that when there are normal voting hours, it’s often people in cramped urban areas that end up waiting for hours. Early voting and voting by mail are alternatives to remove that barrier.

What’s the history of rules about who can vote in US elections?

Voter registration is relatively unique to the US and has a long history of racism. It started in New England in the 1800s, was a key element of Jim Crow in the South, and then saw a huge uptick in the early 1900s as states tried to make it more difficult for immigrants and Jewish and Black Americans from voting.

The government makes people pay taxes, why can’t it just register them to vote?

The US has been slowly moving toward easier and, in some states, automatic registration, but the rules still vary by state. In the 1990s, under President Bill Clinton, Congress approved a reform that tied voter registration to the DMV. Most now have some form of online registration. Many states allow same-day voter registration, but in others there are deadlines. North Dakota doesn’t have any voter registration at all.

Read more here.

Raphael Bostic, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, speaks to members of the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta at the Buckhead Club in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020. 

Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, expressed concern Friday about the law passed this week by Republicans in Georgia restricting voting access. 

The new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to give voters food and water while they wait in line.

“It’s something we’re all going to have conversations about in our communities and with our leaders to see if we can get to a place where voting is easily accessible and it’s secure,” Bostic said. “It has to be secure, but you definitely want to have as many people participate as possible. I think that needs to be the goal.”

Bostic, who became the president of the Atlanta Fed in 2017, said concerns about the law could be eased if the legislation is paired with efforts to make voter IDs broadly accessible.

“I think it’s appropriate for people to complain…and if there are concerns, they need to be articulated, addressed and then resolved so that we maximize the amount of voting that’s possible,” he said.  

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on March 23, 2021 in Washington, DC. 

You’re going to continue to hear a lot more about Democrats’ efforts to end the filibuster in the US Senate. If successful, it’ll be an important move supported by good-government advocates, as well as political progressives who want to defrost the levers of government and make them work in a big way instead of in increments.

The short version of the story is that Democrats want to reinterpret Senate rules so they can use just 50 votes to pass things like their voting rights bill.

According to the Senate website — which has its own glossary — a filibuster is this:

These days, it’s shorthand for anytime senators demand a supermajority to cut off debate and move to an actual vote on just about anything.

When people talk about ending the filibuster, what they really mean is reinterpreting Senate rules around cloture so that legislation could pass by a simple majority instead of being held up by a minority.

While top Democrats like Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois are behind the effort and progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have been pushing it for years, moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia are not. Because Democrats have only 50 votes right now, every one of them needs to be on board to change the Senate rules — and they could be changed back in the future.

What this means for the voting rights bill in Congress: House Democrats have passed a sweeping bill that includes a number of voting reforms, including automatic national voter registration. But the bill would now require a supermajority — 60 votes — to overcome a promised GOP filibuster in the Senate.

Democrats have suggested changing Senate rules specifically for this bill, but it’s not clear all Democrats would support the rule change.

During his first formal news conference yesterday, President Biden said he agreed with former President Obama that the filibuster “was a relic of the Jim Crow era,” but stressed his immediate focus was addressing abuse of the rule.

More than 250 bills to curb or complicate access to polls have been introduced in 43 state legislatures as of Feb. 19, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which is tracking the bills — and bills have since been introduced in at least two more states, North Carolina and Wisconsin, according to CNN reporting.

Florida, Arizona and Georgia were all battleground states in 2020 and host US Senate races in 2022. Republican legislative majorities and GOP governors are moving to make it more difficult to vote in these states. Just yesterday, Georgia passed a sweeping bill that would restrict voting access and give state officials more powers over local elections.

Here’s a look at measures being pushed in other states:

Read more here.

Megan Dominy, right, offers water and snacks to people waiting in line to vote in Smyrna, Georgia, in October 2020.

Republicans in Georgia have passed a sweeping elections bill that voting rights advocates say is a bald-faced attempt at voter suppression. 

The new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

The law is seen as a win for former President Trump and his allies, who falsely claimed widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election. Trump himself pressured Georgia leaders to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. 

President Biden has called bills like this “sick” and “un-American.” Other Republican-led states are considering similar voter suppression laws, sparking calls for federal legislation to set a national baseline for voting rules.

The Georgia bill underwent major change in recent days — growing from a narrow, two-page bill into a sweeping omnibus package to becoming law in a little over week. Activists and Black religious leaders in the state held rallies and threatened corporate boycotts in an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt its progress through the General Assembly.

Advocates said they were alarmed by measures that will allow any Georgian to lodge an unlimited number of challenges to voter registrations and eligibility, saying it could put a target on voters of color.

And Democrats in the Georgia Senate on Thursday lambasted measures that boot the secretary of state as chair of the state elections board and allow lawmakers to install his replacement, giving lawmakers three of five appointments.

Voting rights groups argue that granting the state new powers over county elections bucks the tradition of local control and could lead to a scenario in which state officials swoop in to prevent a county from certifying its election results.

CNN correspondent Dianne Gallagher breaks down what is in the law:

Video Ad Feedback

c620b4a3-cb3e-4055-8b32-8b7cbd216def.mp4

01:59 - Source: cnn

Attorney Marc Elias has filed suit on behalf of three civil rights groups against various Georgia officials over the new Georgia voting law.

The suit claims the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, saying, “The Voter Suppression Bill inflicts severe burdens on Georgia’s voters through each individual restriction and the cumulative effect of all the suppressive measures which impose barriers to voting absentee and in-person.” 

The filing also claims that the bill violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

“In large part because of the racial disparities in areas outside of voting — such as socioeconomic status, housing, and employment opportunities — the Voter Suppression Bill disproportionately impacts Black voters, and interacts with these vestiges of discrimination in Georgia to deny Black voters and equal opportunity to participate in the political process and/or elect a candidate of their choice,” the suit says.

The groups filing suit are The New Georgia Project, the Black Voters Matter Fund and Rise, Inc.

Georgia State Representative Park Cannon is placed into the back of a patrol car by Georgia state troopers after being arrested at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, on Thursday.

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock visited the Fulton County Jail on Thursday night after Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon was arrested while trying to gain access to the room where Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was signing SB 202, the new voting bill that would restrict voting access in the state. 

“What we have witnessed today is a desperate attempt to lockout and squeeze the people out of their own democracy,” said Warnock standing outside the jail.

Cannon was released from jail Thursday night, her attorney Gerald Griggs told CNN.

The state lawmaker faces two felony charges — felony obstruction and preventing or disrupting general assembly session, according to an arrest affidavit seen by CNN.

The affidavit states that Cannon was charged with disrupting General Assembly session because she “knowingly and intentionally did by knocking the governor’s door during session of singing [sic] a bill.”

Warnock called the Georgia voting law “outrageous,” and added that “They are trying to fix something that’s not even broken. We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder,” continued the senator. 

“This desperate effort will not stand, we are going to take this fight all the way to the halls of Congress,” said Warnock.

Warnock also called for the support of the state’s business community, “We need Georgia businesses to stand up in a moment like this.” 

“Come Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, the corporate entities in this state will be falling over themselves to honor Dr. King. If they want to honor Dr. King, stand up against voter suppression,” said Warnock. 

Warnock is currently the Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. served as a co-pastor. 

WATCH:

Video Ad Feedback

120da693-55a0-4023-844b-f46180734b81.mp4

01:29 - Source: cnn

Republicans in Georgia sped a sweeping elections bill into law Thursday, making it the first presidential battleground to impose new voting restrictions following President Biden’s victory in the state.

What happened yesterday: The bill passed both chambers of the legislature in the span of a few hours before Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed it Thursday evening. By changing its election laws, “Georgia will take another step toward ensuring our elections are secure, accessible, and fair,” he said.

Kemp, who is up for reelection next year, had refused to give in to former President Trump’s demands last year that he overturn Biden’s victory — earning Trump’s public condemnation. But on Thursday, Kemp said “alarming issues” with the 2020 election demonstrated the need for change.

He predicted critics of the new law “will threaten, boycott, sue, demonize and team up with their friends in the national media to call me everything in the book.”

What the law does: The new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

“It’s like the Christmas tree of goodies for voter suppression,” Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan said on the Senate floor as lawmakers prepared to vote on the nearly 100-page bill Thursday.

Republicans cast the measure, dubbed The Election Integrity Act of 2021, as necessary to boost confidence in elections after the 2020 election saw Trump make repeated, unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

Read more here.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger weighed in on the state’s newly signed voting bill that would, among other things, impose new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots.

The bill passed the Georgia Senate earlier today by a 34-20 vote and was later signed by Gov. Brian Kemp.

Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight Action, called Georgia’s sweeping elections bill, which would restrict voting access and give state officials more powers over local elections, “nothing less than Jim Crow 2.0” in a statement tonight.

The bill passed the Georgia Senate earlier today by a 34-20 vote. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp later signed the bill.

The legislation would impose new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empower state officials to take over local elections boards, limit the use ballot drop boxes and make it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

Read her full statement:

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a sweeping elections bill that passed earlier Thursday by the state legislature.

In the span of a few hours Thursday, the GOP-controlled Georgia legislature sped the elections bill through two chambers, putting the battleground state on a course to impose new voting restrictions on citizens in a state that was pivotal to securing Democratic control of the White House and the US Senate this year.

The bill passed the Georgia Senate by a 34-20 vote.

More details: The legislation would impose new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empower state officials to take over local elections boards, limit the use ballot drop boxes and make it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

Voting rights groups have slammed Georgia’s far-reaching bill, particularly for its provisions aimed at the secretary of state and local election officials.

They argue that granting the state new powers over county elections bucks the tradition of local control and could lead to a scenario in which state officials swoop in to prevent a county from certifying its election results.

The bill is part of a larger effort by GOP-led legislatures across the country to pass restrictive voting measures in key states like Arizona, Michigan and Florida.

As of February, state legislators in 43 states have introduced more than 250 bills with restrictive voting provisions, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

Some background: The bill comes as Georgia’s changing demographics have made the longtime Republican stronghold a key political battleground.

Last November, President Biden became the first Democrat in nearly three decades to win the state. And strong voter turnout in January helped send two Democrats to the US Senate, flipping control of the chamber to their party.

One of those new senators, Raphael Warnock, captured his seat in a special election and will be on the ballot again in 2022.

More than 250 bills to curb or complicate access to polls had been introduced in 43 state legislatures as of Feb. 19, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which is tracking the bills — and bills have since been introduced in at least two more states, North Carolina and Wisconsin, according to CNN reporting.

Florida, Arizona and Georgia were all battleground states in 2020 and host US Senate races in 2022. Republican legislative majorities and GOP governors are moving to make it more difficult to vote in these states.

Texas does not have a 2022 Senate race, but it will feature a race for governor in 2022. Republicans currently control all levers of the state government there.

There are proposals to make it more difficult to vote in other key states — Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — featuring 2022 Senate races, but divided government in those places will make restrictions more difficult to enact.

There is no Senate race in Michigan and there is also divided government there. (See a breakdown of state government control here.)

Republicans at the state level have moved swiftly to either roll back some easy access to voting or put new obstacles in the way of voters following losses in the 2020 presidential and US Senate elections.

They are doing this now for four key reasons:

In the span of a few hours Thursday, the GOP-controlled Georgia legislature sped a sweeping elections bill through two chambers, putting the battleground state on a course to impose new voting restrictions on citizens in a state that was pivotal to securing Democratic control of the White House and the US Senate this year.

The bill, passed the Georgia Senate by a 34-20 vote late Thursday afternoon, and heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who announced moments after the vote that he would sign it later Thursday.

The legislation would impose new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empower state officials to take over local elections boards, limit the use ballot drop boxes and make it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

“It’s like the Christmas tree of goodies for voter suppression,” Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan said on the Senate floor as lawmakers considered the nearly 100-page bill.

Republicans cast the measure, dubbed The Election Integrity Act of 2021 as needing to boost confidence in elections after the 2020 election that saw former President Donald Trump make repeated, unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

The package is part of a national Republican effort that aims to restrict access to the ballot box following record turnout in the November election.

President Biden said in his first White House press conference Thursday that he will “do everything” in his power to halt efforts to restrict voting rights, saying that he thinks the efforts underway in state legislatures are “un-American.”

About the bill: The Georgia bill — SB 202 — would limit drop boxes to the inside of early voting locations during voting hours, make giving food or drinks to a voter a misdemeanor, allow for unlimited challenges to voter registrations and eligibility, and grant state officials broad rights, including the ability to replace local election officials. It would also shorten the runoff cycle from the current nine weeks to just four weeks and remove the elected secretary of state as chair of the state election board.