Georgia Election Overhaul Fails: Power Plays and Broken Promises

The fail­ure of Georgia’s SB214 and HB397 bills, aimed at exit­ing ERIC, ban­ning week­end absen­tee bal­lot drop-offs, and enhanc­ing elec­tion integri­ty, which died on Sine Die, April 04, 2025. Despite past suc­cess­es like SB189 (remov­ing QR codes, adding scan­ners), the GA House opt­ed for a study com­mit­tee on vot­ing sys­tems and vot­er accu­ra­cy instead of vot­ing on HB397, mark­ing the first year since 2020 with­out elec­tion law changes. Sec­re­tary of State Brad Raffensperger’s influ­ence, bol­stered by the Curl­ing vs. Raf­fensperg­er dis­missal, and his refusal to share vot­er rolls with the State Elec­tion Board, stalled progress. Gov­er­nor Kemp and Speak­er Burns resist­ed sub­stan­tive bills, while the GA GOP fake sup­port with­out pres­sur­ing law­mak­ers, leav­ing elec­tion integri­ty efforts unful­filled.

• A lot of peo­ple worked very hard on SB214 and HB397. We were told all the way up to the end that we would get out of ERIC. Last year SB189, there was a group of peo­ple that would be cred­it­ed for that bill. The removal of the QR Code and 70M in new scan­ners. What they will tell you is that there is no need to spend the mon­ey because the next vot­ing sys­tem will be in the next leg­isla­tive ses­sion because the con­tract expires. The GA House let an elec­tion over­haul bill die Fri­day night fail­ing to take a vote on pro­pos­als that would with­draw the state from vot­er reg­is­tra­tion accu­ra­cy orga­ni­za­tion and banned absen­tee bal­lot drop off the week­end before elec­tions day. The bill’s defeat marks the first year since Trump’s nar­row loss in 2020 that GA repub­li­cans haven’t changed state elec­tion laws. Instead the house cre­at­ed a study com­mit­tee to review A touch screen vot­ing equip­ment, a pos­si­ble switch to hand marked paper bal­lots and vot­er reg­is­tra­tion accu­ra­cy. There are enough stud­ies on all the top­ics of these bills to make a deci­sion. Who will be in this com­mit­tee? 
• Why didn’t they get HB397, make it to vote? They were going to strip the vote down. It meant that it came back from the Sen­ate and all they had to do was vote, but they want­ed to strip the vote and send it back to the Sen­ate then the Sen­ate would have been the ones to pass it but the Sen­ate adjourned at 9pm. Raf­fensperg­er is very pow­er­ful. He told them he was not giv­ing the vot­er rolls to the State Elec­tion Board. 
• There is no coin­ci­dence in pol­i­tics. Here is what you are being told. Brad Raf­fensperg­er is more pow­er­ful than you think. The rul­ing of Curl­ing vs Raf­fen­perg­er, his post on the dis­missal on no stand­ing, just days before the ses­sion ends. Toten­berg comes out with rul­ing, Raf­fensperg­er puts out his tweets, ajc par­tic­i­pates and goes after it hard, just days before the elec­tion bills hit the floor. The sec state office releas­es the removal of vot­er rolls due to ERIC. The entire time the bill was in the sen­ate the GA GOP nev­er worked to put pres­sure on the sen­ate to have SB214 to move to the house. They took pic­tures but nev­er put pres­sure on the house for paper bal­lots because Pres­i­dent Trump has request­ed. 
• Jon Burns already knew that Bri­an Kemp did not want an elec­tion bill on his desk. At no time was Burns going to send a bill to Kemp that would have any teeth in it. 
• At the time that the GA GOP sent out the mes­sage to vote yes on HB397, when this came out there was a plea for the law­mak­ers to vote for it. The GA GOP already knew that Jon Burns was not going to move the bill. They gave the impres­sion that they were work­ing for elec­tion integri­ty. 
• Remem­ber the AJC reports that this is the first year that repub­li­cans have not got­ten an elec­tion bill passed. 
• Josh McK­oon can­not retract their deci­sion to put Kylie and Lisa on the bal­lot, they will con­tin­ue to plow for­ward.