Former President Trump applauds a Republican-led election reform bill in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost in November in a defeat falsely attributed to voter fraud.
“Congratulations to Georgia and the Georgia state legislature for changing their rules and regulations for voters,” Trump said in a statement through his PAC Save America.
“They learned from the travesty of the 2020 presidential election, which should never happen again. Too bad these changes could not have been implemented sooner! “
The bill to overhaul the election was signed into law on Thursday. It limits the window in which ballots can be requested when absent, and reduces the number of locations and times that ballot boxes can be accessed.
The measure also allows state legislatures to appoint the election council chairman and remove and replace the county election officials, in a rebuke to the power of elected officials.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who was in charge of the election process under the old rules, declined Trump’s post-election demands to find “11,780 votes” to host the contest for him and the GOP.
President Biden on Friday called the legislation “Jim Crow in the 21st century” and says it harks back to the racially discriminatory laws of the last century.
“One of the scandalous parts of this new state law is that voting hours are ended early so that working people cannot cast their votes after their shift is over,” Biden said.
“It adds rigid restrictions to the issue of ballots in absence, effectively denying the right to vote to countless voters. And it makes it a crime to provide voters with water while they wait in line – lines that Republican officials have created themselves by reducing the number of polling stations in the state, disproportionate in black neighborhoods. “
Proponents argue that the new measures will improve the integrity of elections.
