U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has filed legislation that would, if enacted into law, create what he said is the first-ever affirmative right to vote and challenge Georgia’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202.
“This builds upon the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and would establish for the first time in federal statute an affirmative right to vote for every U.S. citizen,” Ossoff said on MSNBC.
“My legislation would empower American citizens to challenge state laws that diminish their access to the ballot and empower Americans to require that state governments prove why they are restricting ballot access and that the measures states are implementing are the least restrictive means of pursuing some legitimate governmental purpose. This is a major voting rights bill. It is vitally necessary as we continue to see efforts in states across the country and in my state of Georgia to restrict ballot access.”
The bill would allow Americans to challenge, in court, any policy that they believe restricts ballot access. This, according to a press release that Ossoff’s staff posted on his website.
Georgia’s SB 202 requires, among other things, voter ID on all absentee ballots and increased oversight of local election boards that fail to follow state election law.
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) came to Atlanta last month to bash Georgia’s SB 202, and she left believing she had uncovered “a smoking gun” that proved the law was a case of overreach.
That “smoking gun” was testimony from Georgia State Sen. Sally Harrell (D-Atlanta). But Harrell’s words were refuted by another state legislator — a Republican — when The Georgia Star News contacted that man last month.
Klobuchar chairs the U.S. Senate’s Rules and Administration Committee. Only four Democrats who served on that committee, including Ossoff, showed up. Klobuchar held the hearing at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Major League Baseball (MLB) officials announced in April they would relocate the 2021 All-Star Game and MLB Draft, originally scheduled for Atlanta, to Colorado. They specifically blamed SB 202 for prompting the move.
At the time Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp blasted the MLB and said “Georgians – and all Americans – should fully understand what the MLB’s knee-jerk decision means: cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included. If the left doesn’t agree with you, facts and the truth do not matter,” Kemp said on his Facebook page at the time.
“This attack on our state is the direct result of repeated lies from Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams about a bill that expands access to the ballot box and ensures the integrity of our elections. I will not back down. Georgians will not be bullied. We will continue to stand up for secure, accessible, fair elections.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jon Ossoff” by Jon Ossoff.
