Court Rejects Biden Administration Challenge to Georgia’s Election Integrity Act

Atlanta – Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger applauded today’s federal court ruling rejecting the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to enjoin key provisions of Georgia’s Election Integrity Act (SB 202) for the 2024 election. The Biden Administration had asked the Court to prevent enforcement of five provisions of SB 202, including the regulation of absentee ballot drop boxes, the prohibition against line warming at polling locations, the deadline for absentee ballot applications, out of precinct voting, and the ID requirement for absentee ballot applications.

“Today, the Court confirmed what we’ve been saying all along,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “SB 202 strengthens election integrity while increasing the opportunity for Georgia voters to cast a ballot.”

Georgia voters have a high degree of confidence in our elections. As the court specifically noted, a survey conducted by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs concerning the November 2022 election—after SB 202 was implemented—found that Georgia voters reported high levels of satisfaction in their voting experience, including 99.5% of black voters reporting no problem when voting.

In denying the preliminary injunction, the Court found that the DOJ failed to show they were likely to succeed on the merits of their argument that SB 202 was enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose, and that the law “also includes provisions and ideas that were typically supported by Democrats, including provisions that required more staff, equipment, and polling places in large precincts with long lines.”

###

Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #1 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.