Georgia Republican lawmaker wants to emulate Delaware's 'draconian' voting laws
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include additional information Cantrell provided following the publication of this article.
As Democrats in Delaware move to expand voter access for state residents, a Georgia Republican lawmaker said he wants to emulate the First State's current laws, calling them "draconian."
In a Facebook post last week, which Georgia state Rep. Wes Cantrell acknowledged was a "political stunt," the metro Atlanta Republican targeted President Joe Biden's recent comments about Georgia's new election law. The bill passed late last month.
Biden has called the law "un-American," saying it "is Jim Crow in the 21st century." Other prominent Democrats, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — whom Cantrell also targeted in the Facebook post — have decried the reforms.
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Georgia is one of a number of Republican-controlled states that has or is vying to enact more restrictive voting rules following widespread and largely unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections.
According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, as of late last month, at least 47 states had introduced bills to restrict voting access. The four states where the most bills have been filed are Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all of which went for Biden last year.
In his tongue-in-cheek Facebook post, which had garnered nearly 1,000 shares as of Friday, Cantrell said he planned to name his bill “The President Joe Biden Jim Crow on Steroids Voting Act.”
"Since President Biden seems to be very concerned about our laws here in Georgia, this bill will make Georgia’s voting laws identical to those of his home state of Delaware," Cantrell wrote. "As a result, it will have 5 key features."
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Cantrell's proposals
Cantrell's first proposal is to limit Georgia's early voting period. Instead of offering nearly three weeks, "we will have ZERO days of early voting JUST LIKE DELAWARE!" he wrote.
Currently, Delaware residents who are not voting absentee cannot vote early, though that will change next year. In 2019, the General Assembly passed a bill to allow in-person early voting in 2022.
The bill allows voters to cast their ballot up to 10 days ahead of any general, primary or special election — including the weekend before Election Day. Rep. David Bentz, a Democrat who represents Christiana and who sponsored the bill, said the extra time to vote would reduce long lines and help those who can't easily travel to the polls on Election Day.
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Cantrell's second proposal wants to rid Georgia of no-excuse absentee voting — a reform lawmakers in the Southern state had initially proposed as part of the recently passed law, but later dropped.
Under Delaware law, residents must give a valid reason, such as being sick or disabled, to vote absentee. State lawmakers changed the requirement in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now trying to make it permanent.
In January, Bentz introduced House Bill 75, which would implement no-excuse absentee voting. This will likely be the most difficult bill for Delaware lawmakers to pass despite many other states already allowing it.
In the Facebook post, Cantrell said he also wants to emulate Delaware's policy on ballot drop boxes — though his initial proposal wasn't completely accurate.
"Instead of having plenty of secure drop boxes in Georgia, there will be no drop boxes JUST LIKE DELAWARE!" he wrote.
Delaware does currently have drop boxes, but they're located at county elections offices. Residents must also drop their ballot at the specific county office that issued their absentee ballot.
In Georgia, all county elections offices must have a drop box, but other polling places, too, can offer the boxes.
While Georgia's recent restrictions reduce the number allowed in each county — Gwinnett, a metro-Atlanta county with a population slightly more than the state of Delaware, had 23 drop boxes but now is restricted to fewer than 10 — there are still more locations in Georgia than Delaware.
Cantrell clarified Tuesday afternoon, saying that he does not count drop boxes in elections offices. He did not make that clear in the initial post, however.
Cantrell's Facebook post also addressed the distribution of food and water at Delaware polls.
"Instead of being able to get drink/food from a non-poll worker outside of the 150 foot buffer & drink from a poll worker within the barrier in Georgia, it will be illegal to receive anything of value while standing in line to vote JUST LIKE DELAWARE!" he said.
Like many states, Delaware law forbids electioneering and bribery. But the state's election laws do not mention the distribution of food and water.
In a follow-up post Tuesday, Cantrell said to followers that they "can decide if food/water qualifies as 'anything of value.'"
Cantrell isn't the only Georgian who suggested Delaware prohibits distributing sustenance. Gabriel Sterling, a top elections official in the state, said late last month that Georgia polling restrictions were "actually the law in the president’s home state of Delaware.”
Finally, Cantrell said he wants to mimic Delaware in announcing voters' names before they cast their ballots.
In Georgia, residents can vote "in relative quiet," he said. His proposal wants voters' names to be announced out loud, along with their party affiliation during a primary, "so that your vote can be challenged by anyone in the precinct JUST LIKE DELAWARE!"
Though much of Cantrell's post was satirical, Delaware Democrats have been trying to reform state voting laws, particularly the more dated ones.
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In addition to pushing for no-excuse absentee voting, lawmakers want to allow an automatic voter registration system at the Division of Motor Vehicles.
Senate Bill 5 proposes that anyone getting a driver's license with proof of citizenship would automatically be registered. They'd later be notified by mail, where they could then choose their political party.
Another bill, House Bill 25, would let voters register to vote on the same day as an election. Right now, the deadline to register is about four weeks beforehand. Applicants would need a government-issued photo ID and proof of their address.
"We're in a posture in Delaware, where we are attempting to expand voting rights in really significant ways where most of the headlines these days are states that are moving forward with restricting voting access," said Dwayne Bensing, a legal expert with the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware.
"But I guess in some ways, Delaware is also trying to catch up with a lot of states."
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