James Oliphant

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A Georgia lawmaker has proposed a bill to eliminate absentee vote drop boxes. This was a highly-used and popular tool that voters used last November in order to cast their ballots safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

Butch Miller, the No.2 Republican in Georgia’s Republican-controlled senate and a candidate for lieutenant governor in the 2022 elections, said drop boxes were a “weak link” in guarding against voter fraud, according to a statement released by his office.

Former President Donald Trump had criticized Miller, the Georgia Senate’s president pro tempore, for not doing more to pursue his false voter fraud allegations and has said he will not support Miller’s bid for lieutenant governor.

Georgia’s 2018 election will feature two highly-publicized contests. Former Democratic governor candidate Stacey Abrams is likely to face Republican Governor Brian Kemp. Kemp has to first defeat David Perdue (a Trump-backed ex-senator who has supported his falsified election fraud claims), in a primary contest.

Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, the state’s first African-American senator, is up for re-election. Herschel Walker is the leading Republican candidate. He was a former star in football at Georgia and the NFL.

After President Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in November, the southern state was a hotbed of conspiracy theories about election results. Brad Raffensperger (the Republican secretary to state of the state) and Kemp insist that no widespread fraud took place.

Two U.S. Senate seats were won narrowly by Democrats in the same state which gave them majority control. Warnock won the other in a special election for the last two years after Republican Johnny Isakson retired for medical reasons.

The Georgia legislature approved a reform bill to improve voting. It disproportionately affected Democratic-leaning urban counties that have significant Black population that depended on drop boxes during the pandemic. Additionally, the law reduced the amount of time required to request an absentee voter’s ballot.

In June, U.S. Justice Department sued state to supress the right to vote based on race.

Additionally, the general assembly approved a number of state-specific bills which gave more power to Republican county commissioners. It also pushed out some prominent Black advocates.