Judge J.P. Boulee delivered the ruling for the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, asserting that the Biden administration and other Democratic groups had “failed to demonstrate a substantial likelihood of success on the merits regarding their claims that the provisions intentionally discriminate against black voters in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
In essence, the allegations from the Democrat Party suggesting that election integrity laws are racist have been found to lack merit.
In March 2021, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed Senate Bill 202 into law, known as the Election Integrity Act, to safeguard the integrity of Georgia’s elections. This law mandates voter ID for absentee voting, prohibits ballot harvesting, enhances security at ballot drop boxes, tightens the timeframe for requesting absentee ballots, and introduces increased regulations concerning provisional ballots.
The law also imposes limitations on campaign activities and public opinion polling near polling places, such as prohibiting voters from receiving gifts or money within 150 feet of a polling location.
The Democrats contended in their lawsuit against Georgia’s Republican lawmakers that these laws were intentionally discriminatory toward black voters. They argued that the voter ID requirement for absentee voting disproportionately affected black voters because a higher percentage of black voters than white voters lack a valid ID, and the majority of registered Georgia voters do not possess a valid driver’s license or identification card.
However, Judge Boulee rejected these claims, stating that the plaintiffs had “not presented evidence that black registered voters lack the other acceptable forms of identification allowed by the statute at a statistically higher rate than white voters.”
These other forms of identification encompass utility bills, bank statements, paychecks, and other government documents that include a name and address. Boulee pointed out, “Without this additional evidence, the Court cannot conclude at this time that the Identification Provision has a disparate impact on black voters.”
Moreover, Judge Boulee ruled that the plaintiffs failed to provide evidence supporting their assertions that black voters endure longer waiting times in voting lines compared to white voters.
Boulee argued that the claims “do not demonstrate that black voters wait in longer lines at a significantly higher rate than white voters.”
“Even if these percentage differences were statistically significant, Plaintiffs’ expert acknowledged in his report that too few respondents reported wait times exceeding sixty minutes to make reliable racial comparisons for those wait times,” Boulee added.
Following the introduction of Republican-backed election integrity laws in Georgia, Democrats launched a campaign labeling these laws as racist in an effort to protect the integrity of US elections. President Biden referred to the Bill as “Jim Crow on steroids,” and Major League Baseball initiated a boycott campaign and moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest.
Former President Donald Trump and numerous members of his team are facing indictments in Fulton County, Georgia, for their claims of a “stolen election” in an attempt to invalidate the state’s 2020 election results.
