![US civil and disability rights groups ask federal court to block provisions of Georgia voting law](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/11/1280px-Georgia_State_Capitol_Atlanta_Georgia.jpg)
A coalition of civil and disability rights organizations filed an emergency injunction with the Northern District of Georgia on Wednesday asking the court to block two provisions of a Georgia voting law, SB 202, due to their impact on people with disabilities’ access to voting. Asserting that the law unjustly burdens disabled people trying to vote, the groups said in a press release that a preliminary injunction “would help voters with disabilities have equal access to absentee voting in Georgia in the upcoming 2024 elections and allow counties to again provide drop boxes in locations that are accessible.”
The two provisions in question impose restrictions on people’s ability to help voters with disabilities complete a ballot and counties’ ability to provide drop-boxes at accessible locations and times. The groups argue that these provisions make it harder for people with disabilities to vote by limiting measures that make voting more accessible.
Zan Thornton, co-chair of the disability rights group Georgia ADAPT, stressed the need for an preliminary injunction, saying that “in 2022, ADAPT got an avalanche of requests for rides from disabled people across Georgia who couldn’t cast their absentee ballots easily and needed to travel to the polls instead. That dramatic rise in barriers facing disabled voters of Georgia underscores the need for an injunction before 2024.”
Georgia passed SB 202 in 2021 as a response to claims of voter fraud. It faced significant opposition at the time, with one state legislator calling the law “Jim Crow 2.0.” Since then, both the US Department of Justice and the NAACP, a high profile civil rights group, have sought to block the law in court. “Choosing to make access to a fundamental right harder is not only illegal,” said Devon Orland, litigation director for the Georgia Advocacy Office, “it is the antithesis of the foundational pillars of democracy.”