Civil rights groups in Georgia filed another lawsuit against state officials on Monday over SB 202, a voting rights bill that imposes several barriers to accessing the polls. This legislation retaliates against widespread voter registration efforts in communities of color during the 2020 presidential election results, which resulted in record turnout but provoked baseless claims of voter fraud.
SB 202, which passed through the legislature and was signed into law within seven hours, imposes strict requirements for voter ID, severely limits early voting, places restrictions on secure video-monitored ballot drop boxes and bans mobile voting. It also prohibits volunteers from passing out water and food or sharing information with voters while they wait in line to cast their ballot, targeting a tactic used by voting rights groups to ensure all voters had access to information to navigate the process. The legislation criminalizes such activity, known as “line warming,” by calling it “voter intimidation.”
Civil rights groups involved in the lawsuit say that Black voters will be impacted most by these restrictions because voting places in their communities have consistently longer lines and wait times. Limiting early and absentee voting and removing drop-boxes in certain areas will make polling places more crowded. The complaint also mentions that access to the required voter ID is more limited in marginalized communities.
The lawsuit draws parallels between these policies and voter suppression laws of the Jim Crow era to emphasize the ways in which SB 202 violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment rights of voters of color. The parties also argue that the prohibition against line warming infringes on the First Amendment rights of civic engagement and voting advocacy groups.
In a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said, “The provisions of the new law and the manner in which it was enacted reflect a thorough disregard for the sanctity of protecting the right to vote and a headlong and determined zeal to diminish Black political power in Georgia.” The NAACP also filed a separate lawsuit alleging similar constitutional violations on Sunday.
