A new election law battle is brewing in Georgia, this time over voter challenges

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia has been rocked by furious battles over election laws ever since Democrat Stacey Abrams’ narrow loss to Republican Brian Kemp in the 2018 governor’s race.

The statewide brawl burst into the national consciousness in 2021, when Republicans — under pressure from GOP activists who pushed Donald Trump’s false claims that he lost the 2020 election because of widespread fraud — rammed through a sprawling law placing new restrictions on voters.

Now, with only months to go before a likely rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, Georgia is tinkering with state election laws once again. Just last week, Republican lawmakers passed a new bill that would allow the removal of people from the voting rolls through challenges to voter eligibility. It awaits Kemp’s signature or veto.

Supporters say such challenges prevent fraud by rooting out duplicate records and removing voters who have moved out of state. Opponents allege they misuse data and will put legitimate voters through a legal wringer.

Here’s a closer look at the issue:

WHAT’S A VOTER CHALLENGE?

Georgia, along with other states, allows citizens to file challenges to an individual’s eligibility to vote, such as when they have personal knowledge of a neighbor moving out of state. Now, however, residents are increasingly challenging large numbers of voters through the use of impersonal data, including the National Change of Address list maintained by the U.S. Postal Service. Others comb through the rolls looking for people not registered at residential addresses. A Texas group called True the Vote challenged 364,000 Georgia voters prior to two U.S. Senate runoffs in 2021. Since then, individuals and groups have challenged about 100,000 more.