Georgia Senate votes to repeal no-excuse absentee voting

The Georgia Senate voted Monday to repeal no-excuse absentee balloting and tighten identification requirements.

According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the bill restricts absentee voting to people at least 65 years old, have a physical disability or will be out of town on Election Day.

The bill passed on a 29-20 party-line vote.

The Atlanta paper reported that all Georgians also would need to provide a driver’s license number, a state ID number or other identification in order to cast a ballot.

The bill heads for the state House, which also has a Republican majority and which, the AJC reported, passed a different bill last week that would tighten vote-security rules.

A record 1.3 million Georgians voted absentee in the presidential election, more than a quarter of the state’s total turnout of 5 million, the paper reported.

After having been solidly Republican for years, the 2020 election saw Democrats win the presidential race and two U.S. Senate seats, in part because of unprecedented voter mobilization and loosened rules in the midst of the COVID epidemic.

Democrats denounced Monday’s vote as partisan.

“America is at a turning point right now. Our democracy is in peril and our society divided along increasingly partisan lines,” said state Sen. Elena Parent, Atlanta Democrat. “Voters see through transparent attempts to cling to power through suppressive and anti-democratic means.”

Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan denied partisan motivation and noted that the bill “is not preventing anyone from voting.”

“All this is doing is laying the groundwork to release some of the stresses we’ll see in the future as we continue to grow,” the Carrollton Republican said of the poll workers who were inundated by the unprecedented number of absentee ballots last year, which delayed the announcement of the results for days and prompted suspicions among some Republicans and then-President Donald Trump that skullduggery was afoot.