Biggest lies about the Georgia law and why Democrats really hate it

Some of these have been debunked, while others still live on...

• That the new law decreases the allowed time to vote. In fact the law extends the early voting times, adds an extra Saturday, and even allows for busier Counties to open on Sundays if they so choose. The original lie suggested that replacing "normal business hours" language regarding early voting with 9:00-5:00 was in fact limiting the election day voting hours. Election day hours remain the same with the caveat that if you are in line by 7:00 you are allowed to vote. Moreover, the 9:00-5:00 early voting requirement is the minimum required time,. Busier counties can be open from 7:00-7:00 to accommodate heavier early voting traffic . 
• That the new law makes it a crime for anyone to provide food or water for voters who are in line. Again, the new law does nothing of the sort. It only limits the food or water to either come from actual food and beverage vendors, handed out by poll workers, or be left at self service stations. This portion of the law would provide no hardship for anyone standing in line. The only limitations being placed are on the advocacy groups who have made it a habit of handing out water while implicitly or even explicitly campaigning at a polling station against Federal law.
• That the new law is reducing the number of drop boxes. Another complete fabrication. In fact, there is nothing in the current law that allows or any drop boxes of any sort. Drop boxes came about because of Covid and because of a one time executive order specific 2020 election. Without the new law, there would be no drop boxes anywhere. So the new law actually codifies the concept of drop boxes into the law and will require every county to have at least one drop box. It does not limit the amount of drop boxes to that amount, but rather offers that counties should have one drop box for every polling station. While this might end up being less drop boxes than some counties saw in 2020, we have to keep in mind that the entire concept of drop-boxes were a reaction to the pandemic (which will not likely be an issue in our subsequent elections).
• That the new law is making it harder to submit an absentee ballot. This is tied to the law requirement that the driver's license or state ID number be entered on the ballot and verified by the election workers. This would only be harder on someone who does not actually have the driver's license or ID to get the number from. Considering Georgia has a voter ID law for those who vote in person, the requirement to provide ID to vote absentee seems logical. Obviously this should make it virtually impossible for dead people to vote (assuming their death certificate has been submitted and ID indefinitely suspended). It also reduces the possibilities of fraud in many other situations. 

What do the Democrats not like about the law?

• That is provides greater election authority to the State Election board and removes it from the Secretary of State and individual counties. This might be the biggest problem that the Democrats see. Their candidates live or die based almost entirely on the ballot counts that come from a handful of large counties generally run exclusively by Democrats. They really are not going to like giving up the control that these counties currently have. More to the point, the election board will have greater authority to perform performance reviews of the local officials and replace or suspend those officials who are not measuring up. When your bread and butter relies on your big counties taking days or even weeks to finish their counts, randomly finding new ballots along the way, these sorts of performance reviews are not welcome.
• That counties will be required to provide and publish the total number of votes cast by each method by 10:00 PM on election night. The publishing of the total vote totals is quite interesting and likely reflects the 2020 issues where a couple of major Democratic counties made middle of the night determinations that they had tens of thousands more ballots than they first believed. The concept of these large Democratic counties continuing to "find" new ballots to count (sometimes days later) is an amazing concept when you stop to think about it. But by simply looking at the voter roll signatures, along with absentee ballot signatures should make knowing the total number of votes not all that difficult. Once that total has been determined and declared, we should not be seeing any more "found" ballots popping up in these counties. At least not without a very good explanation.
• That counties will be required to  be done counting all absentee or mail-in votes by 5:00 the next day. This one will especially stick in the craw of Democrats and the ability of their large counties to deliver the big push, many times after everyone else has finished their counts. Almost as if they want everyone else to finish so they can see what they might "need" before finishing their own counts. Obviously absentee ballots are the most prone to possible fraud. With the total number already declared the night before and the requirement that they all be counted by the next day, that will eliminate much of the possibility of any tampering. 
• That workers from other smaller counties will be required to assist with the counts of larger counties. This is tied to the previous portion of the law that will requires all counties provide their results in a more timely manner. Again, in theory this should be a welcome condition for these larger counties often times burdened with large number of ballots. But it also would mean that workers from smaller counties (most likely Republicans) would be present to muddy up the waters for them. No longer will there be five Democratic operatives working all alone in the middle of the night feeding the same ballots through multiple times (as caught on tape). In theory those larger counties would have much needed help from other workers and not be placed in a position where they are alone in the middle of the night counting votes. Should be a good thing, but I suspect many Democrats don't like the idea of Republican poll workers crashing their ballot counting parties. 
• Pretty much nobody will be allowed to send out unsolicited absentee ballots. Another change that obviously reduces the chances of voter fraud, without actually preventing anyone who wants to vote absentee to be able to. If they request a ballot, they get one. If they don't request one than it will no longer be legal to just send it anyways. This avoids problems with people who may have moved having a ballot that they want sent to a new address, being sent to a wrong address as well as preventing other types of issues. From a voter standpoint, the idea that you (and you alone) are in control of any absentee ballot being sent in your name should be comforting for the voter. Not so much for the Democratic Party.
• The law also will require larger precincts to be split in subsequent elections if they cannot keep lines under a certain time limit. Obviously, this should make for an easier and more transparent voting experience, and also means that there would be less chance to see the sort of statistical anomalies that these larger precincts seem to produce. But for some reason this is another issue that Democrats were against. 
• Other security measures regarding special paper being used on mail in ballots and other types of tests and images being made public before the election are being enacted, and were done so over the objection of Democrats in Georgia. Democrats claim that they are worried about the cost of some of these security changes and that they would like to see more input from the local officials (guessing the Democrats in charge of the big counties) before enacting these changes. Obviously they lost that argument.