Republican legislators in Georgia introduced a package of bills on Monday aimed at restricting access to the ballot box. This comes as grassroots organizations led by Black women helped register an unprecedented amount of marginalized voters, flipping the state in support of Democratic candidates for both the November presidential election and the state’s January Senate run-offs.

Several of these bills are sponsored by the Senate Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform, a new committee founded this year in response to the Trump campaign’s attempt to undermine confidence in the electoral process. Much of the legislation mimics claims made in the seven lawsuits challenging the state’s 2020 presidential election results that perpetuated baseless conspiracies of voter fraud and prompted two recounts.

Proposed changes to the state’s election laws include:

• SB 67– Requiring voters to submit a copy of their photo identification with an application for an absentee ballot;
• SB 68– Prohibiting the use of secure absentee ballot drop boxes;
• SB 69– Adding an extra step to the state’s voter registration system, which currently registers people automatically when they get a new license or update their license information through the DMV unless they choose to voluntarily opt-out;
• SB 70– Preventing voters from casting a ballot for a US Senator or Representative in one state then moving to Georgia and voting in a congressional run-off;
• SB 71– Removing no-excuse absentee ballots and limiting absentee ballots to people with disabilities, religious exemptions, people who work in elections, are 75 years or older or are otherwise “required to be absent” from their precinct through the early voting period;
• SB 73– Prohibiting organizations that promote voter registration and civic engagement from distributing absentee ballot applications;
• SB 74– Expanding the rights of poll watchers to observe the ballot counting process with restrictions that are “as minimal as possible”; and
• HB 228– Requiring state-issued identification cards registered to non-citizens to have a clause that disclaims “BEARER NOT A U.S. CITIZEN — NOT VOTER ID.”

Although Republicans control Georgia’s House and Senate, Democrats introduced legislation to counter these proposed bills. Legislators will also vote on a ballot referendum regarding the restoration of voting rights for people with felony convictions by amending the state constitution. Other bills seek to allocate funding for early voting in rural counties and promote an interstate agreement in support of the popular vote.