The election security law passed by Republican lawmakers in Georgia and signed into law by the Peach State's GOP Governor Brian Kemp drew some of the most outlandish claims from Democrats who, for some reason, oppose making it harder to cheat and easier to vote in elections.
President Biden called the election security law "Jim Crow 2.0" and urged Major League Baseball to yank the All-Star Game from Atlanta, which they did — all based on a lie. Woke corporations signed an open letter and used it to virtue signal their opposition to what they alleged would be racist disenfranchisement of voters in Georgia. Celebrities took to their Instagram and Twitter followers to smear the law, furthering false claims. Failed Democrat candidate for governor Stacey Abrams declared that the law proved definitively that Georgia Republicans were racist and wanted to return, as Biden had hinted, to some revamped iteration of disgraceful Jim Crow policies.
But then the 2022 primary election happened, and voter turnout records were broken. That is, Georgia's election security law actually saw *more* people vote, refuting the claims made by Biden, Abrams, celebrities, and woke companies that the law would suppress voters, especially black voters. The midterm general election saw more of the same boosted turnout numbers — a real-world demonstration of how laws like Georgia's that secure elections give more people faith in the integrity of their vote and confidence that it will be counted fairly.
'But...but...,' stammered Democrats in Georgia and elsewhere, 'higher voter turnout doesn't mean there wasn't suppression of black voters. Unlikely, but Democrats clung to that talking point like Jack Dawson gripped that floating Titanic door in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.
Well, now we know (again) that Democrats were lying about the impact of Georgia's election security law.
The University of Georgia just finished up a polling project asking Peach State voters — not Joe Biden, not woke companies, and not out of touch celebrities — about their experience voting in the 2022 election, the first full cycle in which Republicans' new election security law was in effect. The survey included "1,253 Georgia registrants who self-reported as having voted in the 2022 general election," according to UGA's poll.
And UGA's survey found that, contrary to Democrat race-baiting and fear-mongering, Republicans delivered on their promise to not just make cheating more difficult, but to make voting easier — for all voters regardless of their race.
Under Georgia's new election security law, 98.9 percent of voters said they did not have any problem voting, including 99.5 percent of black voters and 98.7 percent of white voters. When it came to wait times — another area in which Democrats tried to claim the new election law was disenfranchising black voters — 94.7 percent of voters saw wait times less than 30 minutes, including 68.7 percent who waited less than 10 minutes and 31.9 percent who had no wait time.
For those who did have to wait a few minutes, 99 percent of voters said they felt safe, and 72 percent rated their experience voting in the 2022 election as "excellent," including 72.7 percent of white voters and 72.6 percent of black voters. A whole 0 (zero) percent of black voters rated their experience voting in 2022 as "poor."
When asked to compare their experience voting in 2022 with their experience in 2020, 14.8 percent of voters said it was "easier" in the most recent election, while 77.4 percent did not note a difference. Among black voters, 19.1 percent said it was easier to vote under the new law, 72.5 percent saw no difference, and just 6.9 percent reported it was more difficult to vote.
UGA poll: 0% of black respondents said their voting experience in Georgia was poor in the 2022 midterm election. Around 73% of black voters said it was excellent, equal to white voters. https://t.co/tQYs54wGgN pic.twitter.com/z67fwEJr0d
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) January 23, 2023
Where's that racial disparity Democrats absolutely promised would occur as a result of more secure elections?
UGA's poll also showed that an overwhelming majority — 89.7 percent — of Georgians were "very" or "somewhat" confident that their vote counted in 2022, including 94.3 percent of black voters and 88 percent of white voters.
A significant majority of Georgia voters also said they believed that votes were counted in a timely manner, only properly cast ballots were recorded and counted, and it's easy to cast a ballot in Georgia.
So, will this be the end of Democrats' race-baiting fear-mongering? Unlikely. The only real way for Abrams to admit the truth that elections are free and fair would be for Stacey Abrams to actually win a race for governor. On a more serious note, the UGA poll is proof positive that election integrity worked in Georgia, and a great case study for other states to learn from as they look to implement similar laws to make it harder to cheat and easier to vote for all lawful election participants.