Protesters shouted inside the Georgia State Capitol building on Thursday
Credit: AP
New election laws in Georgia that include a ban on people handing out food or water to voters waiting in line at polling stations have been labelled "sick" by Joe Biden.
Governor Brian Kemp drew protests on Thursday as he signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.
Democrats and voting rights groups say the law will disproportionately disenfranchise voters of colour. It is one of a wave of GOP-backed election bills introduced in states around the country after former president Donald Trump stoked false claims that fraud led to his 2020 election defeat.
Mr Biden called the Republican efforts "un-American" and "sick" during a news conference on Thursday.
The Republican changes to voting law in Georgia follows record-breaking turnout that led to Democratic victories in the presidential contest and two US Senate runoffs in the once reliably red state.
"After the November election last year, I knew, like so many of you, that significant reforms to our state elections were needed," said Mr Kemp, who drew Mr Trump’s ire after certifying Mr Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Governor Brian Kemp, centre, signed the bill into law
Credit: AP
Mr Kemp signed the bill less than two hours after it cleared the Georgia General Assembly. The bill passed the state House 100-75, before the state Senate quickly agreed to House changes, 34-20. Republicans in the legislature supported it. Democrats were opposed.
At his first news conference as president on Thursday, Mr Biden criticised Republican moves to limit voting rights and vowed to block it.
"The Republican voters I know find this despicable, Republican voters, the folks outside this White House," he said. "I’m not talking about the elected officials. I’m talking about voters. Voters. And so I’m convinced that we’ll be able to stop this because it is the most pernicious thing."
In Georgia, Democratic state Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler called the efforts by Republicans "voter suppression tactics".
"We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve seen since the Jim Crow era," Ms Butler added.
The Georgia law requires a photo ID in order to vote absentee by mail, after more than 1.3 million Georgia voters used that option during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also cuts the time people have to request an absentee ballot and limits where ballot drop boxes can be placed and when they can be accessed.
Many of Georgia's voters used absentee ballots in the presidential and senate elections
Credit: BLOOMBERG
Democratic Representative Rhonda Burnough said the bill is based on lies told by Republicans after November’s election.
"Georgians turned out in record-breaking numbers because they could access the ballot," Ms Burnough said. "Lies upon lies were told about our elections in response, and now this bill is before us built on those same lies."
Republican Representative Jan Jones said the provisions cutting the time people have to request an absentee ballot are meant to "increase the likelihood of a voter’s vote being cast successfully," after concerns were raised about mail ballots not being received in time to be counted.
One of the biggest changes gives the GOP-controlled legislature more control over election administration. That has raised alarms about potential greater partisan influence.
The law replaces the elected secretary of state as the chair of the state election board with a new appointee of the legislature after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rebuffed Mr Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results. It also allows the board to remove and replace county election officials deemed to be underperforming.
That provision is widely seen as something that could be used to target Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold covering most of Atlanta, which came under fire after long lines plagued summertime primary elections.
Republican Representative Barry Fleming, a driving force in crafting the law, said that provision would only be a "temporary fix, so to speak, that ends and the control is turned back over to the locals after the problems are resolved".
The law also reduces the timeframe in which runoff elections are held, including the amount of early voting for runoffs. And it bars outside groups from handing out food or water to people in line to vote.
The law does not contain some of the more contentious proposals floated by Republicans earlier in the session, including limits on early voting on Sundays, a popular day for Black churchgoers to vote in "souls to the polls" events. It instead mandates two Saturdays of early voting ahead of general elections, when only one had been mandatory, and leaves two Sundays as optional.
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