ATLANTA — House Republicans want to marshal the state bureau of investigation to police Georgia elections. 

House Bill 1464 would task the Georgia Bureau of Investigations with elections investigations, which are currently conducted by the state elections board. GBI would be allowed to issue subpoenas for documents and materials.

“Making every single investigation a criminal investigation is going to deter not only voters, but poll workers,” Cindy Battles, a state political activist, said. 

Other language included in the proposal grants poll watchers what is being called “meaningful access” to polling places and tabulation centers.

If due to overcrowding, all poll watchers cannot access a site for poll watching or tabulations, election officials would be required to ensure a partisan balance of poll watchers who can have access. Poll watchers who threaten, intimidate or interfere with an election official’s duties would also be charged with a felony under HB 1464. 

Additional proposals in the bill include: 

• Changing the requirement of providing at least one voting booth or enclosure for each 250 electors, to only proving a voting booth per 250 who have not yet cast a ballot in the current election
• Requiring elections superintendent to post the absentee ballots tabulations by 10 p.m. on election night
• Allowing inspections of paper ballots at a cost determined at the local level
• Adding a provision that state employees must be given necessary time off to vote during early voting, if requested
• Requiring any private person or nongovernmental entity seeking to provide a grant, gift or donation for election purposes to file and application with the State Election Board. The board which would ensure that it would not benefit a particular party, and develop a process to ensure “fair and equitable distribution of funds.”

“This bill will strip [local elections] of another opportunity to bring much needed funds to our counties and support our elections to ensure we have staffing and resources for secure accessible elections,” said Desiree Jones of the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “To allow highly partisan state election board to have control over where  funds would go would almost ensure the counties with the highest need will be straight out of luck. Our election staff and supervisors don’t deserve to have to cut through divisive red tape just to get the funding our state should be supplying them with in the first place.”

HB 1464 was approved in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity with all Republican support, and all Democrats voting against it.

The proposal was just introduced in the House last week as part of Republicans’ continued efforts to do what they called “improve election security,” following former President Donald Trump’s and some supporters’ false claims of election fraud following his 2020 defeat. The measure further adds stipulations and clarifications to Georgia’s 2021 election law overhaul (SB 202).

The House Special Committee on Election Integrity approved HB 1464 Wednesday with all Republican support, and all Democrats voting against it. The proposal now heads the House for a vote.  

Opponents against the 40-page proposal say the proposed changes would burden elections staff by adding extra procedural duties and intimidate voters by allowing GBI to oversee elections investigations.    

The bill largely focuses on “chain of custody” procedures for security paper used to print ballots, and receiving and counting absentee ballots. Any election official who comes into contact with the paper and ballots has fill out tracking forms with the date, time and their signature upon each encounter.

The bill also clarifies that three elections personnel must be present while the sealed containers containing verified and accepted absentee ballots are being unsealed and “verified for integrity.”

“At the conclusion of the scanning of the ballots, such ballots shall be stored in tamper-resistant containers sealed with numbered seals, the number of which shall be recorded on the chain of custody document forms specified by the Secretary of State, and such forms shall be signed by the person storing the ballots and the date and time of storage shall be entered on such forms,” the proposal states.  

The bill also makes way for more election audits, which opponents say could delay or stop the process of certifying elections.