Some of these Republicans are trying to convince Americans that baseball officials are not only wrong, but hypocrites. On television and social media, they strongly argued or suggested that Georgia’s new law is no stricter than the Colorado election law.
That’s not even close to true.
Colorado sends a ballot to each active registered voter. Thanks to this policy and others presented below, experts say that Colorado is one of the states that facilitates voting; David Becker, executive director of the Center for Innovation and Election Research, a non-profit organization, said he was “undoubtedly at the top of the list of easiest states to vote for.”
There is even debate among experts about exactly where Georgia is – but it is obviously more restrictive than Colorado. Republican attempts to describe Colorado as the equivalent of Georgia were either false or devoid of essential context.
However, they quickly made their way around the right-wing media ecosystem. Echoing statements made by others on Fox News, network reporter Peter Doocy on Tuesday asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki if the White House is concerned that Major League Baseball is moving the game to a state “where regulations are very similar to Georgia. ” Doocy’s premise was simply inaccurate.
Here’s a look at the many issues with some of the Republican claims to Colorado and Georgia.
Colorado has far fewer voters per person
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, South Carolina Senator
Tim Scott, and other Republicans pointed out that Georgia’s new law provides for 17 days of early voting in person, while early voting in Colorado begins 15 days before election day.
This is true – but it leaves aside a critical context: Colorado, unlike Georgia, sends a ballot to every active registered voter. And the vast majority of Colorado voters choose to vote by mail, rather than in a polling booth.
In the 2020 general election, 94% of ballots in Colorado were postal votes, says the secretary of state’s office. In the 2016 general election, they were 93%.
In Georgia, where voters have to request a postal vote if they want one, about 26% of the votes in the 2020 general election were postal votes.
The new Georgia law also prohibits the state from moving toward Colorado-style mail-dominated elections. The law says ballots can only be provided at the specific request of a voter. And it forbids the secretary of state and other government officials from even sending requests for the absence of all active registered voters, as did Raffensperger, a Republican, for the 2020 mayors because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Colorado offers more access on election day
Scott
alleged in his tweet that Atlanta “has more days of voting rights than the CO.”
If he was talking about election day rights, he was wrong.
Colorado keeps its ballot boxes open until election night. Georgia did the same in 2020 – but now, under its new law, it cannot do so in the future. Under the new law, placement boxes can only be available during the early voting period, which closes on the Friday before election day.
In addition, Colorado allows people to register to vote on election day and then vote. In Georgia, the registration deadline is the fifth Monday before election day.
Colorado generally offers more access to the access box
It’s not just Election Day, during which Colorado offers more access than Georgia.
Under Georgia’s new law, each county must have at least one box. But the law also says that each county cannot have more than one additional box for each early voting site or for 100,000 active registered voters, whichever is smaller.
This provision will mean that Georgia’s large counties will have far fewer storage boxes than Colorado’s large counties. Atlanta’s Fulton County, with a population of more than 1 million in 2019, says it will have to go from 38 boxes for the November election to eight in the future. Denver, with a population of about 727,000 in 2019, also had 38 storage boxes in November and is not forced to shrink abruptly.
In fact, Colorado’s most populous counties must have at least one drop box at 12,500 active voters. (Requirements are gradually getting smaller for smaller counties.) By 2020, Denver had to have at least 35 boxes.
That’s not all. Georgia law requires that ballot boxes be moved to polling stations or early voting stations (except in cases of emergency declared by the governor), where they may only be available during early voting hours – no later than 7:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. : 00 continues to be available outdoors 24 hours a day.
Colorado has weaker voter identification requirements
Some Republicans have wrongly suggested that Colorado voter identification requirements are equivalent to Georgia’s. Others were false, claiming inaccurately that Colorado specifically required photo identification.
In a viral tweet, which was deleted after us
checked it on TwitterGreg Price of the right-wing website The Daily Caller claimed that Colorado “requires a photo ID to vote in person.” Kemp
SAPS on Fox News that, from what he was told, “they also have a photo identity requirement.” And Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas
SAPS on Fox News: “We’ve received some shocking, in fact terrible news, for all your spectators, especially for all the major justice warriors in Major League Baseball: Colorado seems to need photo identification to vote in person.”
None of this is true. Colorado allows both the photo ID and the photo-free ID for in-person voting; the acceptable identification list without a photo includes a recent utility bill, bank account statement, government check or salary; a Medicare card; or a copy of the birth certificate. (The full list is online for anyone to read.) Georgia, on the other hand, requires a photo ID to vote in person.
So Scott’s tweet that both states have “voter ID” is correct, but the two states do not have the same requirements for voter ID or even in-person voting. And under Georgia’s new law, states are even more different when it comes to postal voting.
Under previous Georgian law, election officials validated voter identities by verifying signatures attached to ballots. Under the new law, voters must provide a Georgia driver’s license number, state ID card number, or the last four digits of their social security number. If they have none of this, they can provide one of several alternative forms of identification, such as a copy of a utility bill, bank account statement, or government check.
In Colorado, a signature is enough for correspondent voters, except for first-time voters in Colorado, who have not previously provided their ID to state election officials.
Georgia lawmakers are entitled to argue that the provision of IDs for postal voting is not particularly onerous, given how many options it offers voters. But it is wrong to suggest that Georgia’s mood is the same as Colorado’s.
Colorado has a lighter restriction on voter distribution
The viral tweet now deleted by Price, from the Daily Caller, mentioned that Colorado also has a restriction on people who distribute food and drink to voters waiting in line.
This is true. But the restriction is much narrower than the much-criticized food and water restriction in Georgia’s new law.
Colorado says campaign workers can hand out “water, snacks and other items” to voters in line. He only says that these people cannot wear clothes or accessories with the name of a candidate or party, if they are about 100 meters from the polling station.
In contrast, Georgian law states that “any person” is prohibited from distributing any gift to voters, including food and drink, at a distance of 25 meters from any voter in line or at a distance of 150 meters from the polling station. . The only exception is for election staff setting up unsupervised water stations.
Other provisions
It is noteworthy that Republicans who compare Georgia law with Colorado law do not mention some of the most important provisions of Georgia law.
For example, Georgia law allows the Republican-controlled state election council to elect someone to take temporary control of a county election commission that the state council deems to violate election law or state council policies. The state committee is allowed to take control of four county electoral systems at once.
