When Georgia’s State Election Board considered a proposal to recommend that state lawmakers ban no-excuse absentee voting early last year, the Republican-dominated body shot it down, with then-newly appointed Chair John Fervier casting the deciding vote.
But in a Wednesday meeting in Atlanta, a trio of Trump-aligned board members successfully approved a similar proposal in a narrow 3-2 vote. The board will now officially recommend that the state Legislature end a practice that was adopted in Georgia back in 2005 when it reconvenes in January for the 2026 legislative session.
A record number of Georgians voted by mail-in ballot during the 2020 presidential election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the years since, absentee voting has come under increased scrutiny from Trump and his supporters, who blamed his loss in 2020 on unfounded accusations of rampant voting fraud.
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