Civil rights groups have filed a new federal lawsuit against Georgia’s sweeping new election law that makes it harder for Georgians to vote, particularly voters of color and new citizens.
Dozens of states are pushing similar legislation in the wake of the 2020 election, including Florida, where Republican lawmakers are working on a new law that would make it harder to vote by mail.
Abdelilah Skhir, a voting rights policy strategist for the Florida ACLU, said Thursday that Tallahassee legislators are creating “solutions in search of a problem.” He talked about it on WJCT News’ First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross.
“What we’re really concerned about is: why is this happening and why are we rejecting democracy and making it harder for people to vote? It almost doesn’t matter what the motivation is; what we can tell you as a verifiable fact is this will lead to fewer people being able to vote.”
One of the things the proposed law would do would be to restrict or eliminate ballot drop boxes, which became popular during the pandemic.
Skhir said supervisors of elections in all 67 counties oppose these bills.
The entire interview with Skhir is available on Thursday’s First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross, which encores at 8 p.m. on WJCT News 89.9.
Michelle Corum can be reached at mcorum@wjct.org, 904-358-6308 or on Twitter at @MCorumonME.
