Georgia bill could provide specific reasons for challenging voters

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state senator says he’s seeking to make it harder for people to challenge the qualifications of individual voters, but opponents warn he’s only going to enable more baseless attacks.

Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican, told committee members on Tuesday that his proposed rewrite of House Bill 976 would add some standards for county election boards to uphold challenges and remove voters.

“I do think we have an excessive number of challenges,” Burns said. “I think we need to clean up our voter rolls so that people have confidence that those on the voter rolls are legitimate. And I do think we need to clarify what is a sustainable challenge.”

The committee didn’t vote on the bill after getting bogged down in discussions over further changes, but Burns said he wants a vote Thursday, setting the bill up for possible action in the closing days of the Georgia General Assembly’s 2024 regular session.

It’s part of a continuing ferment over election laws in Georgia, as Republicans continue to seek changes aimed at redressing complaints fueled by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that he lost Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020 because of fraud. Those claims have created a continuing demand for changes among Republicans, even after Georgia’s majority-GOP legislature muscled through a long list of legal rewrites in an intensely controversial 2021 bill.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Georgia lawmakers may be close