Georgia election ‘reforms’ or ‘restrictions’? Answer is clear

Election “reform” is churning at the Gold Dome, and Democrats fighting the blizzard of legislation say keeping track of the restrictive bills is like trying to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar.

The old segregation-era scheme of making Black voters guess the number of jelly beans before being allowed to cast a ballot came up in speeches as emotional lawmakers pushed back hard against efforts that would (among a lot of other things) severely limit ballot drop boxes, get rid of no-excuse absentee voting, demand more ID for absentee voting and curtail weekend early voting days.

In all, an estimated 80 voting-related bills are floating around this session. Not all bills are being pushed by Republicans, but the ones making noise certainly are. Whether they are election “reform” or “restriction” is a po-tay-to/po-tah-to argument depending on your political persuasion. But you can draw a direct line from a very sore loser to a bunch of lies and conspiracies to proposed legislation that would help GOP candidates.