Georgia secretary of state asks feds to drop lawsuit over 2021 voting law
With the Trump administration in charge, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is seeking to end a federal lawsuit against the state’s 2021 voting law.
Raffensperger asked Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday to withdraw the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit alleging Georgia illegally discriminated against Black voters by limiting voting access after the 2020 presidential election.
He blamed former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department for suing the state over the law that reduced ballot drop box availability, required additional ID for absentee voting, tightened absentee ballot application deadlines and banned handing out food and water to voters waiting in line.
“It was just shooting from the hip and trying to build this narrative that somehow Georgia was ‘Jim Crow 2.0,’ and it’s not supported by the facts,” Raffensperger told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I want to protect taxpayers. Georgians shouldn’t be spending money needlessly based on people trying to score cheap political points.”
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has already put a freeze on civil rights litigation, but it hasn’t taken action on the case against Georgia’s voting law, Senate Bill 202. The case has stalled while the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviews preliminary rulings.
Even if the Justice Department withdraws from the case, lawsuits against the voting law will continue with other plaintiffs, including the NAACP, the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Sixth District and voting rights groups.
“Parts of this law make voting more difficult for millions of Georgians, and we’re still pressing those claims,” said Bryan Sells, an attorney for the Georgia chapter of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.
So far, U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee, a Trump appointee, has upheld most of the law, but he blocked criminal penalties for handing out food and drinks to voters waiting in line as long as they’re outside 150 feet of a polling place. Boulee also barred counties from rejecting ballots of voters who didn’t write their correct date of birth on absentee ballot envelopes.
After the 11th Circuit issues rulings on appeals, the cases could move toward a trial.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
