Analysis | Expand access? A historic restriction? What the Georgia voting law really does.

But Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who signed the invoice into law final month, insists the reverse.

“I’m telling you the truth about this bill,” Kemp insisted on WABE radio, Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, on Tuesday. “It expands access.”

A shut examination of the language in the law exhibits it does comprise new restrictions on voting; some are prone to make it disproportionately harder for poorer voters and voters of coloration to solid their ballots.

It’s additionally appropriate that there are methods by which the law expands voter entry, notably in ways in which will likely be seen in rural areas.

The context is vital after all: This is taking part in out in the wake of Georgia’s swing to Democrats in the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing baseless fees of fraud from the Trump marketing campaign and its allies. Republican lawmakers in the state — as a lot of their counterparts throughout the nation have — rapidly started drafting a invoice critics say is a political response from a celebration beholden to Trump.

So let’s have a look at what it does and doesn’t do.

It shrinks the window for early and absentee voting. Rather than permitting voters to request ballots six months from Election Day, the new law says voters can begin requesting ballots 78 days out; counties can start sending ballots to voters simply 29 days earlier than Election Day, reasonably than the earlier 49 days. Critics say any mail delays with these shorter durations might result in voters not getting ballots on time, or not with the ability to return them in time. But proponents of the law say voters merely don’t want the 180 days they used to need to request ballots.

Counties and the state can ship mail poll purposes solely to voters who request them (versus merely sending each registered voter a poll) and can’t fill in info forward of time.

New voter ID necessities. Voters who solid mail ballots should present one in all a number of types of identification. This provision — which replaces a signature match beforehand used to substantiate voters’ identities — is one in all the most controversial as a result of critics say it’s prone to disproportionately have an effect on Black voters.

A restrict on the variety of poll drop packing containers throughout early voting. It basically limits the variety of drop packing containers in every county to 1 per early-voting web site, or one for each 100,000 voters in the county, whichever quantity is smaller. And the drop packing containers can’t be conveniently unfold over the county, for instance, in locations the place there aren’t in-person early-voting places; all of them need to be positioned both in a county election workplace or at an early-voting precinct location.

Shortened early voting in runoff elections. Instead of a minimal of three weeks of early voting in runoffs, early voting in runoffs will likely be held in a single Monday-Friday interval.

State lawmakers get far more energy over county and native elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in each the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will choose the chair of the state elections board, reasonably than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected place. The chair is meant to be nonpartisan. The state election board can examine county election boards and has the energy to droop county election superintendents — although the law limits the state board to suspending 4 at a time.

You would possibly bear in mind Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who turned the goal of his personal get together’s ire after President Donald Trump requested him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision looks like a direct response to that, making certain partisan state lawmakers can management the election course of extra instantly.

A ban on handing out meals and water inside 150 ft of a polling place, or inside 25 ft of any voter. Republicans say that is geared toward stopping exterior teams from influencing voters; Democrats say it’s purported to make it tougher for individuals to attend in lengthy traces, notably on scorching or chilly days. Election officers are permitted to arrange water stations — however they’re not required to take action.

A minimal variety of drop packing containers is assured. Kemp has been arguing publicly that in rural counties that didn’t have drop packing containers in earlier elections, that is an enchancment. While the variety of drop packing containers is so restricted it may not make an enormous distinction for voters, Kemp is appropriate that the law for the first time codifies necessities for a minimal variety of drop packing containers in every county.

An extra day of early voting in most rural counties. The new invoice requires no less than two Saturdays of early voting for every major and normal election (earlier Georgia law required just one). It permits counties to decide on when their early-voting places are open, for at least eight hours a day between 7 a.m. and seven p.m.

More assets for precincts so traces don’t get too lengthy. The law mainly requires the state to watch polling places to see if any have traces longer than an hour, or nonetheless have voters ready in line for greater than an hour after polls have been supposed to shut. In these circumstances, the state is required to both kind new precinct places to ease the pressure or beef up the current polling places’ capability to deal with giant numbers of voters. This applies particularly to populous precincts, largely in city areas.

A block on Sunday voting. Earlier proposals known as for a ban on Sunday voting. This proposal was seen as instantly concentrating on Black voters, who typically vote as a part of church-run “souls to the polls” efforts that happen on Sundays.

A ban on no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia Republicans really handed a invoice in the state Senate a number of weeks in the past that might have banned no-excuse absentee voting, one in all the most criticized — however not uniformly agreed upon — GOP proposals in the lead-up to the last invoice. A few key Georgia Republicans, together with Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R), opposed the thought — and it was finally faraway from the invoice Kemp signed into law.

Kemp and different defenders of the law say what’s on the books now’s in step with voting legal guidelines, even in blue states. Kemp cited Biden’s dwelling state of Delaware in a Fox News interview Thursday, pointing to the methods Georgia permits extra entry.

Georgia’s new voter ID requirement for mail ballots is one attention-grabbing comparability level. The state’s previous system required a cumbersome — and a few stated unreliable — signature-matching course of, and the new law replaces it with a requirement for a driver’s license, Social Security card or one in all quite a lot of different types of ID prescribed by the state.

That’s really a bit bit much less strict than a few of the strictest voter ID necessities in the nation, the place picture ID is required. Other states are nearer to Georgia’s new law, requiring some type of picture or non-photo ID, together with a Social Security quantity. And amongst these are blue states together with Delaware, Washington and Connecticut.

The preservation of no-excuse absentee voting means Georgia isn’t amongst the most restrictive states by way of mail-in voting. In 2020, 4 states required a purpose past the coronavirus pandemic to vote by mail.