-Move that the Senate agree to the House substitute
to Senate Bill 202.
-In March, the Republican- controlled legislature
in Georgia passed a law
reforming the state's voting and election system.
-We quickly began working with the House and Senate
on further reforms,
to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.
The bill I signed into law does just that.
-The 98-page-long bill, SB 202,
is the first major election-related bill
signed into law in a swing state since the 2020 election.
Voting rights advocates argue the changes
unfairly restrict access for certain groups.
-My first reaction, honestly, was, "Can we get a break"?
-I don't think we, as disabled people,
who also happen to be Black and rural,
a whole lots of times,
we are not really considered when decisions are being made.
-There has been no clearly defined evidence of fraud
in Georgia.
There hasn't been any need for any of these restrictions
and none of them have been justified, in fact.
-I'm a blind individual and I've seen everything
from separate waiting rooms
to separate movie theater seating, to a Black president.
And the first thing that came to my mind is,
"Wow," you know, they want to take us back to Jim Crow.
-Georgians will, no doubt, be soon overwhelmed
with fancy TV ads, mailers, and radio spots
attacking this commonsense election reform measure.
According to them, if you believe in protecting
the security and sanctity of the ballot box,
you're a "Jim Crow in a suit and tie".
-When people think about voter suppression,
I think they consider it as overt,
as people being dragged out into the street,
dogs being unleashed on people,
bodies being dragged in the street.
That is not all that voter suppression looks like.
One of the modern ways that I can think of, off the bat,
is the Shelby v Holder decision.
-Largely Southern states that had these special requirements
that the federal government imposed in that 1965
Voting Rights Act.
They are no longer going to have to deal with that,
at least for the time being,
unless Congress takes special action.
-Once that decision had the full force of the law
for all of our states, Georgia started closing down
polling locations left and right.
The majority of these closures were in Black
and brown communities, which means, for those voters,
they have a much harder time to vote.
That momentum has continued with this legislation
that we just saw in SB 202.
Once that passes, that means that it's going to be
far more difficult for people of color
to be able to do things that they're accustomed to doing.
-I've never seen them do a signing ceremony
behind closed doors.
I've never seen them do it that quickly.
-You're under arrest. -Are you serious?
-No, you are not. -No!
She's not under arrest.
-Some of the most concerning provisions in the bill
restrict access to voting.
Ballot dropboxes are now permanent,
but only available at certain locations
and during limited times.
-Now, counties have to limit the dropboxes
that they can even use, so,
now, they have to figure out, "Well, what does that mean?
Does that mean I have to rip them out of the ground"?
Because they're bolted to the ground.
Now, they have to be removed?
-Also, the absentee voting period is shortened,
with new ID requirements.
-I've always been registered to vote in Pennsylvania,
despite all of the on-the-ground work that I do in Georgia.
The first election that I would've had an opportunity
to vote in in Georgia would have been the gubernatorial election.
But I was really confused by the laws and the restrictions
and what would be the repercussions,
if I changed my address, and I didn't want to switch
and then not be able to vote or, you know,
face some of the problems that my peers were facing.
-The secretary of State is demoted from chairing
the state election board.
-I think what's really stark there is
that he's a duly elected representative of the people.
So I am very afraid that that sets a bad precedent
for removal of duly elected officers
that the legislature just doesn't happen to agree with.
-And the bill criminalizes delivering food, drinks,
and chairs within a certain distance
of a polling place or line.
-Barbara, my cousin, she's out there in a wheelchair,
trying to cast her vote,
and she's out there for an hour and a half.
I can't bring her any water or a snack.
And who thinks like that?
The disabled community is a part of that demographic
that's being hurt by this.
-The way that you vote independently,
if you have low vision, is that you use technology.
The current machines that we have do not support them,
so they have had to bring their phones in,
that have readers on them,
so that they could vote independently,
secretly, like those of us who can see get to do.
But this bill continues, despite their clear pleas about this,
continues to criminalize the use of a phone
inside of the voter ballot box.
-I would like to see that it be mandatory,
in every Board of Elections training from this point on,
that there be at least one section solely geared
towards accommodations.
-I think that we should really look at the turnout
and the outcome of the last election as a positive
and as a reason to look at what did work
and make that more prevalent and make it easier,
as opposed to using that to make it harder.
-There's going to be a lot of need to pay attention
to every single meeting,
every single discussion, every single time,
and so we're going to get people equipped and do that.