Voting & Civil Rights

The threat to the integrity of our elections is real. In 2021, Georgia changed its state laws to restrict the accessibility of mail-in voting, requiring mail-in voters to include their driver’s license numbers or other documentation to verify their identities, instead of using signature verification. Georgia also restricted drop box locations to election offices and shortened the window to request absentee ballots. In addition, Georgia’s law prevented people from distributing food and water to the voters who often wait hours in the heat.

There also is a new Georgia law that empowers the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to search for election code violations. It is concerning that greater police involvement in elections could intimidate individuals, preventing them from casting their vote.

These legislative actions were driven by the unfounded and unsubstantiated premise that the 2020 election was stolen and that there was rampant voter fraud.

Congressman Bishop co-sponsored the For the People Act, which is an expansive voting and elections bill that also includes provisions on gerrymandering reform and public financing of campaigns. The legislation passed the House on March 3, 2021, by a vote of 220 to 210.  

He also supported H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Enhancement Act, which is intended to fix the enforcement provisions of the original Voting Rights Act that were gutted by the Supreme Court in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision. The Court’s conservative majority held that the formula for determining whether jurisdictions were subject to the law’s Justice Department pre-clearance procedure for voting and election changes by state and local governments (mostly focusing on southern states with a long history of racist voter suppression) were outdated.