Rushed legislation threatens to shift election accountability and thwart access to absentee ballots in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
ATLANTA — Aklima Khondoker, Georgia State Director of All Voting is Local, issued the following statement in response to Georgia legislators’ rush to advance SB 463, which would ban state election officials from mailing absentee ballot applications to eligible voters, threatening to silence them.
The bill only aims to further restrict access to the ballot on the heels of Georgia’s catastrophic primary election on June 9 and could pass as early as tomorrow.
“A useful first-step to expand voting access to all Georgians was to send all active-voters an absentee ballot application.
Georgia voters need open and available access to absentee voting, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rejecting an amendment that would let voters request an absentee ballot once for all elections in one cycle;
Delaying the addition of an online portal for ordering absentee ballots to July 2021 that would not address any of the absentee ballot issues encountered this year.
