ATLANTA — While the Republican-controlled state elections board in Georgia is posturing to take over Fulton County elections, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, is hoping to pass federal laws that would prevent such impositions in the future.  

Sewell introduced H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, at a press conference Aug. 17 in Selma and plans to formally introduce the bill as the House convenes this week. 

The bill aims to restore some provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which had been removed by the Supreme Court in 2013 and would limit any state from intervening in and attempting to take over local elections departments. 

“The right to vote is the most sacred and fundamental right we enjoy as American citizens and one that the Foot Soldiers fought, bled and died for in my hometown of Selma, Alabama,” Sewell said at the press conference. “Today, old battles have become new again as we face the most pernicious assault on the right to vote in generations. It’s clear, federal oversight is urgently needed. With the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, we’re standing up and fighting back.”

As a result of the passage of Georgia’s new voting laws, the Republican-led S.B. 202 (Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021), the Georgia Election Board appointed a three-person panel on Aug. 18 to review Fulton County’s alleged mismanagement of elections, the first step in a process that could result in the State Election Board appointing a new elections superintendent in Fulton County, the largest county in Georgia and the majority of its voters are Democrat. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the action was triggered by letters from Fulton Republican legislators who requested the review.

“I have been saying for a long time that the state needs the authority to step in when counties have consistently failed their voters,” Raffensperger said in a prepared statement. “I’m pleased that the state finally has that authority and that the State Election Board has taken the first step today. I’m confident that the performance review team will do a good job and I hope Fulton will cooperate with this process.”

In June 2020, Raffensperger proposed giving the state authority to replace election officials in what he called the “chronically mismanaged” county election, during an Atlanta news conference days after a “chaotic primary in Fulton County,” his office stated.

That proposal was included in the act and establishes procedures for the State Election Board to replace the head of a county’s election department in certain circumstances.

The act included other voting changes such as limiting early voting days, stricter voter ID requirements for absentee voting and shortening the timeframe for applying for absentee ballots.  

Sewell’s home state of Alabama, a red state, also passed some restrictive voting measures, including limiting early voting, banning curbside voting and now requiring voters to state a valid reason for voting absentee in addition to requiring the signature of two witnesses or a notary on the ballot.

The ban on curbside voting put into law what was already happening based on an interpretation by Secretary of State John Merrill. Last year, several groups including those representing people with disabilities and disabled veterans, sued the state for not allowing curbside voting during a pandemic. The Supreme Court, however, upheld the ban.

Two counties that pushed for curbside voting, Jefferson and Montgomery counties, both voted for Biden in 2020 and are the most populous of the few Alabama counties that voted Democrat in 2020. 

States like Tennessee and Mississippi did not make any recent changes to voting laws; however, Mississippi is said to already have had some of the strictest voting laws in the country by not allowing early voting, no-excuse absentee voting and prohibiting online voter registration.

“By preventing states with a recent history of voter discrimination from restricting the right to vote, this bill restores the full promise of our democracy and advances the legacy of those brave Foot Soldiers like John Lewis who dedicated their lives for the sacred right to vote. I’m proud to be introducing this bill today and look forward to its swift passage. Our democracy is at stake,” Sewell said. 

Sewell’s introduction of H.R. 4 comes after an estimated 20 states passed reform laws and after Senate Republicans stalled Senate Democrats’ version of a voting reform bill, For the People Act, prior to its summer session ending earlier this month; a previous version of H.R. 4 passed in the House last year but stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate at the time.