The Washington Post: Opinion

Opinion: Georgia Republicans were quiet about their attack on voting rights, but, oh, did they laugh

People wait in line for early voting at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta, Ga., on Oct. 12.
(Michael Holahan/The Augusta Chronicle via AP)

By Michelle Au
March 27, 2021 at 11:06 a.m. EDT

Michelle Au, a Democrat, is a Georgia state senator.

What struck me the most was the noise coming from all the wrong places.

Thursday afternoon, I sat in the chamber of the Georgia State Senate and watched as my colleagues, one after another, went up to the well to speak out against Senate Bill 202, a true Frankenstein’s monster of voter-suppression measures. It was clearly designed to ensure that a record Democratic turnout like the one in November — and in the state’s U.S. Senate runoffs in January — never happens again.

This hastily sewn-together bill is a broad attack on voting rights. It includes imposing limits on the use of mobile polling places and drop boxes; raising voter identification requirements for casting absentee ballots; barring state officials from mailing unsolicited absentee ballots to voters; and preventing voter mobilization groups from sending absentee ballot applications to voters or returning their completed applications. The list goes on.

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