Georgia bill could provide specific reasons for challenging voters

ATLANTA — A Georgia state senator says he’s seeking to make it harder for people to challenge the qualifications of individual voters, but opponents warn he’s only going to enable more baseless attacks. Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican, told committee members on Tuesday that his proposed rewrite of House Bill 976 would add some standards for county election boards to uphold challenges and remove voters. And I do think we need to clarify what is a sustainable challenge.” The committee didn’t vote on the bill after getting bogged down in discussions over further changes, but Burns said he wants a vote Thursday, setting the bill up for possible action in the closing days of the Georgia General Assembly’s 2024 regular session. Those claims have created a continuing demand for changes among Republicans, even after Georgia’s majority-GOP legislature muscled through a long list of legal rewrites in an intensely controversial 2021 bill. “Why would we be concerned about challenging somebody’s eligibility?” A draft of the bill would have allowed rejected challenges to be appealed to the State Election Board instead of the current process of appealing to court, but Burns said it would be removed, citing opposition from Gov.