Republican National Committee vows to fight Biden's lawsuit against Georgia's voting rules to protect voter integrity
- The Republican Party has stepped into the fight over Georgia's voting rules
- Will intervene into Justice Department lawsuit in the case
- Both the national party and its GOP Senate campaign arm getting involved
- 'Joe Biden and Democrats are weaponizing the Justice Department by trying to strong-arm the state of Georgia,' RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement
- Last week, US Supreme Court upheld Arizona voting restrictions
- Experts think this will hurt the DoJ's Georgia case
The Republican Party has stepped into the fight over Georgia's voting rules, announcing on Thursday plans to fight Joe Biden's Justice Department in its lawsuit against the state.
Both the national party and its Senate campaign arm said it would intervene in what GOP officials call a 'politically-motivated case.'
'Joe Biden and Democrats are weaponizing the Justice Department by trying to strong-arm the state of Georgia into making its elections less secure. The RNC is intervening in this case because the security of the ballot is more important than Democrat power grabs,' Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
Republicans are heavily targeting Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia in next year's election.
The Republican Party, led by Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, is intervening in the Justice Department's lawsuit against Georgia voting rules
Many Georgia voters waited in long lines in the 2020 election
Last week, the US Supreme Court upheld a series of voting restrictions in Arizona that are similar to Georgia's. Experts said it will make it harder on the Justice Department to fight the Georgia case.
The Justice Department announced at the end of June it is suing the state of Georgia over its new voting law that critics say make it harder for African Americans to vote.
'The rights of all eligible citizens to vote, are the central pillars of our democracy,' Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference announcing the suit.
'Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia's election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section two of the Voting Rights Act,' he said.
Georgia's Election Integrity Act was passed in March by the Republican-led state legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. It put new limits on absentee voting and gave greater control over election administration to state lawmakers.
Republicans immediately criticized the suit as politically motivated. Biden won the state of Georgia in the 2020 election. Democrats then picked up the state's two Senate seats in a January special election.
The lawsuit is being overseen by Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general. Both are longtime civil rights lawyers with extensive records litigating against voting restrictions.
'After a historic election that saw record voter turnout across the state, particularly for absentee voting, which black voters are now more likely to use than white voters, our complaint challenges several provisions of [the Georgia law] on the grounds that they were adopted with the intent to deny or abridge black citizens equal access to the political process,' Clarke said.
Among its provisions, the Georgia law makes it illegal to give a bottle of water or a snack to people waiting in line to vote. That section of the statue, in particular, has come under attack from voting rights advocates.
Clarke noted the law pushes more black voters to in person voting, 'where they will be more likely than white voters to confront long lines.'
'Historically, minority voters in Georgia have been disproportionately more likely to wait in long lines to vote in person on Election Day,' she noted.
Mobile voting - which was used in Fulton County, which has the largest Black population in the state - is now illegal in Georgia under its new law. Ballot drop boxes must now be located inside early voting sites instead of other convenient locations. It also adds a voter ID requirement for mail ballots.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Justice Department is suing Georgia over its new voting law
Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, will oversee the federal lawsuit against Georgia's law
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It is the first major voting rights case the Justice Department has filed under President Joe Biden.
Biden has been critical of Georgia's law, calling it the 'Jim Crow in the 21st Century.'
'Among the outrageous parts of this new state law, it ends voting hours early so working people can't cast their vote after their shift is over,' Biden said of the law in March. 'It adds rigid restrictions on casting absentee ballots that will effectively deny the right to vote to countless voters.'
Garland indicated more actions could come.
'This lawsuit is the first of many steps we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote that all lawful votes are counted. And then every voter has access to accurate information,' Garland said.
'Where we believe the civil rights of Americans have been violated, we will not hesitate to act,' he noted.
