More than 20 bills currently in General Assembly could impact the way you vote in the next election

ATLANTA — The way many of you cast your ballot in the next election could be changing.

Right now, there are more than a dozen proposals in the Georgia General Assembly that will affect elections if they are voted into law.

Supporters said the measures are about keeping your vote secure, while opponents said it’s about suppressing the vote.

Larry Simpson is a Cobb County voter who said he has lost faith in the election process.

“For the first time in my life that I really could have not trusted the system,” Simpson said about the November election.

Despite two statewide audits and an investigation into possible fraud by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Simpson told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson that he questions the results after former President Donald Trump lost the state and the presidency.

“I was one of them that voted for him. And I really have trouble with accepting what has happened right now,” Simpson said.

Georgia Republicans have proposed 24 bills that address concerns about voter integrity by putting new restrictions on voting. Critics have painted most of the bills as anti-democratic.

“If they are successful, and passing these 20 awful voter suppression bills, then there’s going to have to be an entire re-education,” said Nse Ufot with the New Georgia Project.

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State election officials found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020. Still, Republicans are moving to potentially eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, ban drop boxes and get rid of automatic voter registration.

State Sen. Butch Miller of Gainesville said he got 5,000 phone calls from upset voters.

“Voters have to have confidence,” Miller said.

He drafted a bill that creates an “elections assistance officer” appointed by the state elections board to help counties.

“My home county of Hall, I think in 2016, we had about 5,000 absentee ballots. This past election 2020, we had 28,000. Well, how do you plan for and handle that change in workload with the same … with a finite number of people?” Miller said.

He’s also one of nine sponsors of SB-71 that would ban absentee voting unless a voter was disabled, over 75 or met other new requirements.

“The main goal here is to restore integrity and confidence in the ballot box,” Miller said.

State Rep. David Wilkerson of Cobb County said fellow Democrats are willing to work with Republicans on some of the bills — to a point.

“Anything that limits people’s access to the polls is going to be an issue,” Wilkerson said. “Our job in the minority party is to look at things that will help voters and then try to also push back on the ones that will harm voters’ access to the polls.”

Outside of the Capitol, voters like Simpson are watching and preparing themselves for the next election.

“If they just do any of these things, I’d have more confidence,” Simpson said.

Georgia lawmakers to consider limiting absentee voting, Fulton judge rejects GOP lawsuit to limit drop box hours

Cox Media Group