Organizations Sue Over Georgia Election Law

Steven D. Schwinn, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

The New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund, and Rise, Inc. sued Georgia officials last week to halt the state's new restrictive voting law, SB 202. The complaint is here.

The plaintiffs challenge the state's adoption of "unnecessary and burdensome new identification requirements for absentee voting"; restrictions on absentee drop boxes; ban on mobile polling places; prohibition on distributing unsolicited absentee ballot applications; prohibition on third-party ballot collection; authorization of third-party challenges to voter qualifications; invalidation of ballots cast before 5:00 p.m. in a precinct where a voter wasn't assigned; ban on giving food and drink to voters waiting in line; and compressed time period for voting in a runoff election.

The plaintiffs argue that the restrictions create an undue burden on the right to vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.