American Democracy Minute

An update on a Georgia voter suppression bill we told you about two weeks ago. Public pressure pushed HB 1464's senate committee to strip the most controversial provisions of the bill, among them using the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to follow up on election irregularities, not election officials.

This week to Arizona, where Republican Governor Doug Ducey has signed HB 2492, which imposes a “proof of citizenship” requirement to vote for all Arizona voters. After 1996, Arizona required proof of citizenship for any new driver's licenses, allowing a driver's license to be used when registering to vote. But voters in prior years could swear to citizenship, subject to civil penalty for inaccurate information.

In the wake of Georgia's legislation last year adding layers of voter ID rules for mail ballots, limiting ballot drop boxes, and shortening the time in which to return those ballots, a bill passed last Tuesday in the Georgia House of Representatives piles on yet more restrictions.