A Democrat member of the Georgia Board of Elections late Monday night celebrated the beginning of absentee voting for the state’s upcoming primary elections.
“I almost forgot-Happy First Day To Apply For An Absentee Ballot For The Georgia General Primary! (SB 202 shrank the timeframe for apply for an absentee ballot from 180 days in advance to 78.) Print your application here and mail to your county registrar,” Sara Tindall Ghazal said on Twitter.
I almost forgot-Happy First Day To Apply For An Absentee Ballot For The Georgia General Primary!
(SB 202 shrank the timeframe for apply for an absentee ballot from 180 days in advance to 78.)
Print your application here and mail to your county registrar. https://t.co/i3fxwU3BeS
— Sara Tindall Ghazal (@TindallSara) March 8, 2022
Ghazal is deeply entrenched in Georgia Democrat politics.
She is the Democrat House Minority Caucus policy director and is also running for the District 45 seat in the state Legislature.
“I am Sara Tindall Ghazal, and I am running for Georgia State House District 45,” her website says. “I am running because Georgia needs new leadership for the future of our state, and the future of our children. We need leaders who will work for us, not corporate interests.”
Absentee voting in Georgia has been marred in controversy since the 2020 election cycle.
As The Georgia Star News has reported extensively, the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia were certified without legally required chain-of-custody documents related to absentee ballots.
“Eleven months after the November 3, 2020 election, a review of transfer forms provided to The Georgia Star News in response to an open records request reveals that the Secretary of State’s office in Georgia is missing chain of custody documents for 6,995 absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes in Fulton County during the November 2020 election,” The Star News reported in October. “The number of absentee ballots for which the office has no evidence of the origination of the ballots represents nine percent of the 79,460 total that Fulton County has recorded as being deposited into drop boxes during the more than month-long early voting and Election Day period.”
President Joe Biden only won the state by a total of 12,670 votes, a razor-thin margin. Former President Donald J. Trump vigorously contested the result of the election in Georgia to no avail.
In response, Georgia’s Republicans passed SB 202, mentioned by Ghazal, which Democrats label as a “voter suppression” law.
Republicans call the new law a “voter integrity” measure.
Along with shortening the period in which absentee ballots can be filed from 180 days to 78 days, it requires voter ID on all absentee ballots and increased oversight of local election boards, especially those that that fail to follow state election law like the ones who have still not filed the chain-of-custody documents from the 2020 election.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Sara Tindall Ghazal” by Sara Tindall Ghazal.
