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Republicans in a Southern state, 27 of them, last month, sent the Senate an ominous letter to the state elections board. They touted a claim (rightly so) about the 2020 election popularized by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. A few days later, several Republican members of the state House sent a similar letter seeking a “performance review” of election officials in the Democratic stronghold of Atlanta.

Republicans and the Conservative Media

It might seem unremarkable, in post-Trump GOP, that elected officials are spouting off about some lie or half-truth broadcast by the conservative media. However, these letters have set in motion a chain of events that could end in the mass disenfranchisement of voters. This is within the Democratic stronghold of Atlanta. It is for the 2022 statewide and midterm elections.

SB 202 – New Election Law

Georgia Republicans in March passed SB 202. It is a sweeping new election law that puts up obstacles between Georgia voters and their right to cast a ballot. In fact, some are somewhat minor or even popular. Most severe provisions of this new law allow the state election board, which is controlled by Republicans, to take over control of the county election boards. In fact, those boards can disqualify voters. Then move polling precincts and even possibly even refuse to certify an election count.

The letters from Republican lawmakers are the first step in the legal process. The Republicans may use them to take over elections in Fulton County. It is the most populous county in the state which encompasses most of Atlanta. Moreover, in 2020, almost 73 percent of Fulton County voters cast a ballot for President Joe Biden. Moreover, Biden won the county by nearly a quarter-million votes. This is enough to push him ahead of former President Donald Trump in a state decided by 11,779 votes overall.