Residency fights could snare many Georgia voters under new bill

Georgia Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, R-Sylvania, explains a bill that would ban private contributions to counties for elections, on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, at the state Capitol in Atlanta. Burns is backing a measure that would make it easier to knock voters off the rolls based on residency questions. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

Georgia Republicans are considering a new wave of election legislation that could make it easier for residency challenges to knock thousands of people from the voter rolls and ban ballot dropboxes, again catering to those who still deny President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, two years after a GOP-driven election law overhaul in the politically competitive state was signed amid widespread outcry.

“Election deniers will never be satisfied…,” Kristen Nabers, the Georgia director of the voting rights group All Voting is Local, told the state Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday. “They’re just going to keep pushing to perpetuate conspiracy theories in the name of greater transparency.”

But the sponsor says the bill would ease voter concerns and stop counties from interpreting existing law in different ways.