When you can challenge the right to vote of someone that you don’t know and have never met. And, can do it for thousands of people at a time.
That is VOTER
Close to 100,000 Voter Registrations Were Challenged in Georgia — Almost All by Just Six Right-Wing Activists
by Doug Bock Clark, photography by Cheney Orr for ProPublica
July 13, 7 a.m. EDT
The recent transformation of the state’s election laws explicitly enabled citizens to file unlimited challenges to other voters’ registrations. Experts warn that election officials’ handling of some of those challenges may clash with federal law.
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The March 2022 voter challenges were the first of many from Schneider: As the year progressed, he submitted seven more batches of challenges, each one larger than the one previous, growing from 507 voters in April to nearly 15,800 in October, for a total of over 31,500 challenges.
Vetting Georgia’s voter rolls was once largely the domain of nonpartisan elections officials. But after the 2020 election, a change in the law enabled Schneider and other activists to take on a greater role. Senate Bill 202, which the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed in 2021, transformed election laws in response to “many electors concerned about allegations of rampant voter fraud,” as the bill stated. Many states allow challenges, but officials in Georgia and experts say that in the past challengers have typically had relevant personal knowledge, such as someone submitting a challenge to remove a dead relative from the rolls. Georgia, however, is unusual in explicitly allowing citizens unlimited challenges against anyone in their county.
At first, voting rights groups were vocal about other aspects of SB 202, such as restrictions on absentee ballots, paying less attention to the 98-page bill’s handful of sentence-length tweaks that addressed voter challenges. The change to the challenges rule was “the sleeper element of SB 202,” said Rahul Garabadu, a senior voting rights attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
Media outlets have reported on the high number of challenges and numerous cases of voters feeling harassed, impeded or intimidated by being placed into “challenged” status. But the outsized role of the small group of people making the challenges was less clear. ProPublica was able to determine that a vast majority of the challenges since SB 202 became law — about 89,000 of 100,000 — were submitted by just six right-wing activists, including Schneider. Another 12 people accounted for most of the rest. (ProPublica obtained data for all challenges logged in 30 of the state’s 159 counties, including the 20 most populous.) Of those challenges, roughly 11,100 were successful — at least 2,350 voters were removed from the rolls and at least 8,700 were placed in a “challenged” or equivalent status, which can force people to vote with a provisional ballot that election officials later adjudicate.
Challenges from right-wing activists have proliferated in Georgia despite strict federal laws governing how voters can be removed from rolls. That’s in part because state and local election officials have struggled to figure out how to reconcile SB 202 with federal protections. This has resulted in counties handling challenges inconsistently, sometimes in ways that experts warn may have violated federal law, something they say may have been the case with Schneider’s March challenges.
In the run-up to the 2022 election, voting rights advocates warned that some challenges might create insurmountable barriers to people casting a ballot, such as by removing them from the rolls. But there were no published accounts of Georgians who ultimately did not cast a ballot as a result of being challenged. Schneider’s March challenges did lead to this kind of harm in at least one instance: An unhoused voter found his removal from the rolls too high a barrier to allow him to re-register in time to vote.
Challenging the right to vote of someone you have never met is absolute garbage. It’s voter suppression. Plain and simple. The GOP can’t win if they don’t cheat.
I hope people understand what’s going on with the GOP in Georgia. They are doing nothing but cheating. The challenges, the voter purges, the challenges to actual voter registrations…..all nothing but VOTER SUPPRESSION. Which is, of course, why the GOP just proposed taking the voter challenge suppression – NATIONWIDE – in a new bill.
Republicans have a plan for 2024. To win majority power with only the support of a minority of the electorate they are making it harder to vote and easier to cheat.
Please read and share my latest.https://t.co/20IHR55XGp
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) July 18, 2023
NEW: Republicans’ election plans include enacting new voter suppression measures and undermining the accurate counting and certification of ballots. In other words, they want to make it harder to vote and easier to cheat, @marceelias writes. https://t.co/tqsEQEHwOt
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) July 18, 2023
The conservative-majority #ncga aims to restrict rights in high-stakes elections through bills like S747 & S749. These bills introduce unnecessary hurdles, complicate registration, limit early voting & absentee ballots, and undermine electoral integrity. https://t.co/i5uYWGaNNE
— NC Council of Churches (@ncchurches) July 18, 2023
Florida Democrats (@FlaDems) tweeted at 0:34 PM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
Chair @NikkiFried reveals the “flat out lie” that Republicans have been telling about Florida’s property insurance crisis on @abcactionnews. https://t.co/7yyjZb3Su2
(https://twitter.com/FlaDems/status/1680994390670450688?t=ztVeVL-6FEtIi0Je3S7d_A&s=03)
Dr. Virgo, Politics is a Zero Sum Game (@DrVirgo1981) tweeted at 7:47 AM on Tue, Jul 18, 2023:
I will tell you the truth that nobody will tell you. Since before the civil rights era, there has been a set of white nationalists preparing for a race war. And they run deep in the republican party they see these people as casualties of war, because the ends justify their means
(https://twitter.com/DrVirgo1981/status/1681284649085988864?t=TuXPleA_6keShKvhn-jjdQ&s=03)
Rob Reiner (@robreiner) tweeted at 7:08 AM on Tue, Jul 18, 2023:
Make no mistake. No Labels is funded by wealthy Republican donors. A No Labels candidate will put Trump back in the White House.
(https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1681274779209437184?t=c2YgybhrzvHzYgGf0Q1EjA&s=03)
David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) tweeted at 6:34 AM on Tue, Jul 18, 2023:
Democrats need to focus on those California swing districts. And it’s really odd that California’s Governor is so fixated on red states instead of focusing on the swing districts in his own state that will determine control of the House.
https://t.co/x2gC3l9xhn
(https://twitter.com/david_darmofal/status/1681266198762143744?t=vW9YV4xlK-NOyY27gPYrDQ&s=03)
The New York Times (@nytimes) tweeted at 9:34 AM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
Breaking News: Wesleyan University, a liberal arts college in Connecticut, ended legacy admissions, which help the children of alumni, just weeks after the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action. https://t.co/2UIdjHH3r9
(https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1681673978811916288?t=3DKryPbjd86nGb8P7WEnsg&s=03)
Bakari Sellers clowned on CNN and was in-turn, taken to the woodshed by Black Twitter:
😂😂😂😂😂
Sauvignon Black (@barb_sl) tweeted at 11:05 AM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
I went to law school with BS and a guy I dated in college knew him from their Morehouse days. I haven’t spoken to that guy in years. So why did I get a text this morning, “Did you see what your friend did?”
*Heavy sigh*
(https://twitter.com/barb_sl/status/1681696760475820032?t=eB9P6MG8h4n1hghDeIRHKg&s=03)
😂😂😂😂😂😂
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) tweeted at 8:18 AM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
What a Trump fake elector tweeted in 2 months ago vs. what just happened to her. https://t.co/LKA31AzWt4
(https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1681654622560337922?t=gI1eb0vwf9Z1PwtOXte7cw&s=03)
The Chanteezy Is Real ♉️ (@iamchanteezy) tweeted at 11:07 AM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
Republicans (particularly Black & Brown Republicans) like William Hurd, Timothy Scott Nimarata Haley and many others who continuously criticized the Democratic Party using identity politics are now using the same identity politics to get votes from GOP voters. #TheView https://t.co/qDchlnUsZo
(https://twitter.com/iamchanteezy/status/1681697163754061827?t=7oG3kfpLGYZ0cZkTFypj9Q&s=03)
Owning My Space✨ (@JuneSummer1) tweeted at 8:35 AM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
Life really is so much better when you’re not spending your days on the internets being toxic and abusive to people you may disagree with.
The policing of grown ass people, bullying, inciting mob attacks, that’s an acquired skill for extremely miserable people.
(https://twitter.com/JuneSummer1/status/1681659075988422657?s=03)
Claude (@esq57nyc) tweeted at 0:42 PM on Tue, Jul 18, 2023:
BIG BOOST — A new “hybrid PAC” with deep ties to the Congressional Black Caucus is rolling out an effort to engage Black voters w/ the goal of flipping the House and seeing HAKEEM JEFFRIES become the first Black speaker. NICCARA CAMPBELL-WALLACE will helm Rolling Sea Action Fund,
(https://twitter.com/esq57nyc/status/1681358794301882400?t=NREWjKosZf0gwGMcNhKDVw&s=03)
Black owned B &B in New Orleans👏🏾
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZT8R9g8mg/
https://twitter.com/Stoneybornagain/status/1670467565515333632?s=20
Racist mofos😠😠
Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) tweeted at 10:49 PM on Tue, Jul 18, 2023:
It’s interesting to think about two mavericks in the Manhattan Project: Teller and Neddermeyer. Teller could have tanked the project if Oppenheimer hadn’t kept him on a short leash. Neddermeyer wandered around in the woods, blowing things up, and saved the project.
(https://twitter.com/CherylRofer/status/1681511487133863937?t=NeOvtCdrehelwHKAPXAK_w&s=03)
Craig Mauger (@CraigDMauger) tweeted at 11:37 AM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
A cyber security expert says in a new lawsuit that Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert refused to pay him after he crafted a report for her that didn’t find evidence of election fraud.
Lots of news here.
Story with @robertsnellnews. https://t.co/JiX7kj5OfV
(https://twitter.com/CraigDMauger/status/1681704796527394833?t=N-UPBbM5Vaw4DS3cK6blfA&s=03)
Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) tweeted at 4:11 PM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
Gov. Reeves is against forgiving loans for students. What about for companies?
“A company Reeves is a co-owner of and another that employs his wife benefited greatly from loan forgiveness under the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program…”
https://t.co/O1lBaiydJ6
(https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1681048951418413064?t=M-loyypvVJxmbyhREGiyIQ&s=03)
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) tweeted at 2:56 PM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
BREAKING: Florida just approved new Black history standards that includes noting enslaved people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit”
(https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1681754827729125376?t=Dihh2M0MaML5b_61ZSWu_A&s=03)
We can’t teach the truth about ROSEWOOD 🤬🤬🤬
Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) tweeted at 2:57 PM on Wed, Jul 19, 2023:
The standards also advise that in teaching about mob violence against Black residents instructors should also note “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”
https://t.co/F1c9hpmsep
(https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1681755064254320640?t=T9bGalFyV2mGEqTH6CIM0w&s=03)
Ima far-away old white Grampa, rikyrah, so hope I’m not outta line, but this is so terribly wrong every civil rights activist there and everywhere oughtta be crazed by this! Hoping to hear that every organization that can is in the process of taking them to court right now!
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊