As Georgia Republicans face mounting anger from voters over rising costs, health care cuts, economic chaos and recession-level job losses, GOP Lieutenant Governor candidates Greg Dolezal and Steve Gooch are moving to end county-wide early voting.
SB 568, filed by Dolezal and Gooch among other Republicans, would eliminate countywide early voting – which has led to record early voter turnout in Georgia – and force Georgians to vote at a single, assigned Early Vote location that may be different from their assigned Election Day precinct – deliberately creating confusion, inconvenience, and decreased access for voters.
Besides causing confusion for voters over their assigned voting locations, the bill also drastically reduces the number of available voting locations per county, a clear attempt to suppress the vote in large, Democratic-leaning metro Atlanta counties. Each Fulton County voter would lose 43 early vote locations; DeKalb voters would lose 19; Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett voters would lose 11 each; Cherokee and Douglass voters would lose 5 each; and Henry voters would lose 5 voting locations.
“Dolezal and Gooch’s voter suppression bill serves absolutely zero purpose besides making it prohibitively difficult for Georgians to vote early – and showing just how scared of facing Georgia voters they are,” said DPG Chair Charlie Bailey. “These cowards know their party’s agenda of sky-high costs, job losses, and unaffordable health insurance is hurting working Georgians, and they’re trying to avoid accountability at the ballot box by stopping us from voting.”
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