U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi Monday ordered the dismissal of a longstanding Department of Justice lawsuit challenging Republican Georgia lawmakers’ overhaul of the state’s election laws in 2021.
Bondi said in a statement Monday that the federal lawsuit against Senate Bill 202 will be dismissed because it contained false claims that the Georgia election legislation was a politically motivated retaliation against Black voters and other Democratic-leaning voters who supported Democratic President Joe Biden.
Biden narrowly won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes.
Republican legislators defended changes they made to Georgia’s election as part of an effort to restore public confidence in elections by tightening absentee ballot requirements, improving voter security and other aspects of the voting process.
Bondi is dismissing the Biden-era lawsuit challenging a law that critics called “Jim Crow 2.0.”
The turnout of Black voters in Georgia actually increased following the passage of the election overhaul, Bondi said.
“Contrary to the Biden Administration’s false claims of suppression, Black voter turnout actually increased under SB 202,” she said. “Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us. Americans can be confident that this Department of Justice will protect their vote and never play politics with election integrity.”
Various progressive voting and civil right organizations and the Democratic Party targeted SB 202, a package of nearly several election bills Republican lawmakers pushed through with only five days left in the 2021 legislative session.
Prior to the 2024 election cycle, a Georgia federal court judge declined to temporarily block the state’s controversial election rules.
Trump won a second term in the White House in 2024 after securing 312 electoral votes to defeat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Georgia cast all 16 of its electoral votes for Trump.
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