Ga. senate considers bill that would require election night hand count
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Senate Ethics Committee had a late night meeting Wednesday as elections supervisors, poll workers and lawmakers went through the weeds of HB 397.
“If the elections aren’t right, what else do we have?” said Garland Favorito, a lobbyist and er of the bill. “We rely on the elections to elect the right people, to make the right decisions.”
There are many nuances to the bill. It would allow voter registration statuses to be challenged by the state election board in Atlanta, meaning no matter where someone lives in the state of Georgia, they’d have to drive to Atlanta to defend their registration status.
“If you are a qualified, ed voter, it should be easy. We shouldn’t be making it hard to vote,” Senator Jason Esteves said.
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The bill also would require a person taking a voter registration application to ask if the applicant is a U.S. citizen. If the applicant says “no” or doesn’t answer, the person has to tell them that it is a felony to apply to vote if they’re not a citizen.
HB 397 also would also get rid of Georgia’s hip to the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, that the secretary of state uses to identify voters who have moved out of state.
The biggest talking point in the bill at the committee would require poll officers to hand-count ballots on election night.
“Asking a retiree to sit there and count after a 15-hour day and papers one, by one, by one until they get the number right, the bill specifies that until the number is reconciled, they’re going to be there all night,” said Noah Beck, the elections director for Polk County.
“All they’re doing is hand counting the ballots, they’re not hand counting the votes. We’ve timed it, it takes about 20 minutes to do that,” Favorito said. “We think that’s a really good idea to make sure that the count is correct.”
What do poll workers think? There were some in favor of the hand count.
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“I’ve been a poll worker, a poll watcher, last election I witnessed problems as a poll worker there, long hours, then maybe we need to break it into shifts,” said Chris, who ed in during the public comment portion of the committee meeting.
“Every poll worker I have has told me they will resign if this is implemented. And that is not a threat. You do not take 78-year-old ladies’ threats lightly,” said Tonnie Adams, the Heard County elections supervisor.
A previous version of the bill also put limitations on early voting.
“The draft would have limited each county to only one early voting site, which would have drastically expanded the wait times people experience for early voting, and the length of time they have to drive to that one location,” Senator Esteves said.
“We would like to reduce early voting or even get rid of early voting altogether because there are so many security risks with it,” Favorito said.
The bill was not voted on in committee and will not go to the senate floor yet.
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