Georgia, to the shame of our state and its citizens, has become the national poster child for voter suppression, sparking innumerable expensive and time-consuming lawsuits by voters and non-partisan groups, a Congressional investigation and widespread doubt among Georgia voters that elections will be conducted honestly and that their votes will count. And yet, some members of the state legislature are bound and determined to make matters even worse.
Senate Bill 463 represents yet another attempt to put obstacles in the way of voters who simply wish to cast their ballots and to have them counted. To add insult to injury, SB463 attempts to absolve our state officials responsible for the conduct of our elections from compliance with all applicable laws. If that were not enough, SB463 endeavors to make it even harder to cast ballots by slashing the required number of voting machines across the state.
Apparently, those who have engaged in voter suppression in the past are confident that they can continue to do so with impunity.
It is up to us to demand that our state legislators show them and all Georgians that they are wrong. Georgians are fully aware of everything done in recent years to prevent full and fair elections and will not tolerate a continuation of efforts to suppress the vote and to condone the violation of applicable laws.
Hopefully, our state legislators will do their part to restore confidence in our election process by voting "no" on SB463.
Bruce Menke
Athens