Americas

Americas

Trump administration drops lawsuit over Georgia's election laws

01 April 2025 06:27 (UTC +04:00)

The Justice Department dropped a Biden-era lawsuit against Georgia Monday calling the state’s election changes “commonsense reforms’’ and not voter suppression tactics, APA reports citing CNBC.

“Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us,’’ Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Americans can be confident that this Department of Justice will protect their vote and never play politics with election integrity.”

Georgia has been among the states at the heart of battles over voter access to the polls.

Several states have adopted measures that voting rights advocates said restrict access to the polls, including reducing the number of ballots boxes and the period for early voting. They argue the changes disproportionately impact voters of color.

Preventing fraud or disenfranchising voters?

Supporters say the laws help protect against voter fraud.

In the wake of the 2020 elections, Georgia officials approved a sweeping voting rights measure that overhauled the state’s election rules. Donald Trump lost the state to Joe Biden that year in their bid for president.

The Biden administration sued Georgia over the 2021 law, arguing it intended to disenfranchise Black voters.

The Georgia law, among other things, required a photo ID to vote absentee by mail, cut the period to request an absentee ballot and placed limits on ballot drop boxes. It also gave more control over election officials to the state legislature and made it illegal to hand out water to voters on line at the polls.

Some businesses and events, including Major League Baseball, boycotted the state in response.

Critics of the law likened it to measures adopted during the segregated Jim Crow-era, which aimed to depress the Black vote. They said the new law also created more barriers to access the polls.

Acting Associate Attorney General and Department of Justice Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle called the Biden effort a disgrace. “There is nothing racist about protecting elections—baseless claims of Jim Crow-style discrimination are the real insult,” Mizelle said in a statement.

Bondi said the Biden administration “fabricated an untrue narrative’’ about the impact of the law on Black voters. She and other supporters of the Georgia law said voter registration has gone up.

A record number of Georgians had cast ballots at the start of the state’s early voting period last October, according to Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

For weeks leading up to early voting, grassroots groups, including several targeting communities of color, had campaigned across the state to get people to register and to vote.

Reaction to the announcement

Voting rights advocates and community activists blasted the Justice’s Departments announcement.

April England-Albright, national legal director for Black Voters Matter, said the Justice Department’s action is reminiscent of the “extreme backlash” that happened in the nation’s past in response to gains in the Black community.

“But just as Black people have historically stood firm against a weaponized and radicalized Department of Justice and continued to fight back to increase political and economic rights in this country,’’ England-Albright said in a statement. “Our response to this and other harmful and egregious decisions from Trump's DOJ will be no different, and we will win."

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger welcomed the Justice Department’s move.

“This reaffirms that the Election Integrity Act stands on solid legal ground,'' he said in a statement. "Our commitment has always been to ensure fair and secure elections for every Georgian, despite losing an All-Star game and the left’s boycott of Georgia as a result of commonsense election law."