Bill > SB221

This bill proposes several changes to Georgia's election laws: 1. It requires that any person employed or retained by a county election superintendent to conduct election duties must be a U.S. citizen. 2. It revises the rules for determining voter residency, including specifying that owning or renting a P.O. box is not sufficient to establish residency in a jurisdiction, and allowing the use of additional information like change of address data to determine residency. 3. It changes the "motor-voter" law to make voter registration through driver's license applications opt-in rather than opt-out. 4. It provides more detailed rules and grounds for challenging a voter's eligibility, including allowing challenges based on a voter's registration in another jurisdiction or appearance on the U.S. Postal Service's National Change of Address database. 5. It specifies that the rules of evidence and civil procedure do not apply to voter challenge proceedings, but that the evidence presented must be persuasive and reliable. 6. It allows the use of paper ballots for elections if the state election board approves it. 7. It provides that a non-prevailing party in an election contest case cannot be liable for the other side's attorney's fees if the contest was brought in good faith. 8. It expands the crime of interfering with poll officers to include intimidation of poll officers and other election officials. 9. It criminalizes the willful neglect or refusal of a county or municipal election superintendent to call an election as required by local law.

Government Affairs

https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/64652