After Main League Baseball introduced just lately that it would move the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in protest of recent voting restrictions in Georgia, quite a few outstanding Republicans accused it of hypocrisy.
“Georgia has 17 days of in-person early voting, together with two non-compulsory Sundays; Colorado has 15,” Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia told Fox News. “So what I’m being informed, additionally they have a photograph ID requirement. So it doesn’t make an entire lot of sense to me.”
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina made an identical argument in a widely circulated post on Twitter.
However whereas the 15-day and 17-day numbers are correct, the general comparability is just not. Listed here are 4 key variations between Colorado’s and Georgia’s programs.
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In Colorado, each registered voter receives a mail poll by default.
In Georgia, individuals who wish to vote by mail should apply, and the brand new legislation greater than halves the time they’ve to do this: Beforehand, they might apply as a lot as 180 days earlier than an election, however now not more than 78 days earlier than. Georgia additionally forbids officers to ship voters an absentee poll software except they request it.
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In Colorado, when residents apply for a driver’s license, they’re mechanically registered to vote. And in the event that they aren’t registered by way of that course of, they will register individually anytime, together with on Election Day.
In Georgia, all potential voters should full a registration type, and the deadline is a month earlier than Election Day.
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In Colorado, solely newly registered voters have to offer identification with their mail-in poll; for subsequent elections, all that’s required is their signature. And opposite to Mr. Kemp’s assertion, there isn’t any picture requirement: Voters can use a start certificates, a naturalization doc, a Medicare or Medicaid card, a utility invoice, a financial institution assertion, a paycheck or one other authorities doc that exhibits their title and handle.
In Georgia, solely picture identification is appropriate for normal mail-in ballots, and it needs to be one of six specific types. The requirement will apply to everybody who votes by mail, not simply to newly registered voters as in Colorado.
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In Colorado, there have been 368 ballot drop boxes final yr throughout the state’s 64 counties, not simply in authorities buildings but additionally at colleges, parks, libraries, companies and extra. Containers have been open 24 hours a day.
In Georgia, the brand new legislation requires at the very least one drop field in every of the 159 counties. (Mr. Kemp and different officers word that earlier than the pandemic, Georgia didn’t have drop containers in any respect.) The containers shall be solely at registrars’ and absentee poll clerks’ workplaces or inside early-voting websites, and open throughout restricted hours.
In 2020, Colorado had the second-highest turnout price within the nation: 76.4 p.c of eligible voters, behind solely Minnesota, in accordance with data compiled by the United States Elections Project. Georgia was twenty sixth, with a turnout price of 67.7 p.c of eligible voters.