Former President Trump applauds a Republican-led election reform bill in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost in November in a defeat he faked as election fraud.
“Congratulations to Georgia and the Georgian state legislature for changing its electoral rules and regulations,” Trump said in a statement through his PAC Save America.
“They learned from the sadness of the 2020 presidential election that it will not be possible to let it happen again. Too bad these changes could not have been made sooner! ”
The election review bill became law on Thursday. It limits the window in which ballot boxes can be requested by absence and reduces the number of seats and the number of times ballot boxes can be accessed.
The measure also allows state lawmakers to appoint the chairman of the election board and remove and replace county election officials, in a reproach to the power of elected officials.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who was at the helm of the election process under the old rules, rejected Trump’s post-election demands for “finding 11,780 votes,” to push the contest for him and the Republican Party .
President Biden called the legislation “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” on Friday, saying it goes back to the racially discriminatory laws of the last century.
“Among the outrageous parts of this new state law, it ends up voting hours before so workers can’t vote after their turn is over,” Biden said.
“It adds strict restrictions on the election of votes for absence that will effectively deny the right to vote to countless voters. And it is a crime to provide water to voters while waiting in line, which have created the same Republican officials by reducing the number of polling stations across the state, disproportionately in black neighborhoods ”
Advocates say the new measures will improve electoral integrity.
