(The Center Square) — The Georgia Senate signed off on regulation prohibiting counties from soliciting or accepting donations to assist with election management.
Senate Bill 222 stipulates that public price range should quilt election management prices, barring govt workers and elections officers from accepting items valued at greater than $200 from third-party teams to behavior primaries or elections.
The measure makes it a legal for elections officers to just accept items. It does now not observe to the usage of places for vote casting.
“It is vital that our primaries and elections are paid for with lawfully appropriated public funds,” state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, mentioned in a unlock. “Elections in our state should not be interfered with by third-party organizations or people who operate on a different set of regulations and agendas than our election officials and government employees.
“It should be up to the State Board of Elections to determine where such funds are most needed,” Burns added. “We must ensure that elections are held and conducted fairly and ethically.”
Reactions to the measure have been blended.
“The hypocrisy of the Georgia legislature giving tax credits to corporations that donate to police departments while outlawing people from donating to their local board of elections sends the message that they prefer a police state instead of a voting democracy,” Christopher Bruce, ACLU of Georgia coverage director, mentioned in a commentary ultimate week. “Every Georgian should be alarmed at the erosion of voting accessibility these past years by the state legislature.”
In a commentary after the Georgia Senate Ethics Committee complex the measure, Jason Snead, govt director of Honest Elections Project Action, pointed to a $2 million grant the U.S Alliance for Election Excellence awarded DeKalb County. The Center for Tech and Civic Life, which has benefited from donations from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, helped release the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence as a part of an $80 million initiative.
“Georgia law already prohibits CTCL’s recent $2 million grant to DeKalb County,” Snead mentioned. “…Nevertheless, Georgia lawmakers are right to remove any shadow of doubt. …The private funding of election administration sows distrust in our elections and should be stopped wherever it occurs.”
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