Division among Republicans in Georgia keeps making headlines.  Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, all Republicans, have all said emphatically that the 2020 Election results were not rife with fraud; but that has not stopped some Republicans in Georgia in calling for voting reform that would limit the use of absentee ballots.

Since 2005, Georgia law has said that you do not have to have an excuse to request an absentee ballot.  That is commonly known as “no-excuse” absentee voting. The issue is at the forefront for some Republican lawmakers, like State Senator Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) who represents much of Chattooga County in the state senate, in calling for tougher rules on who can vote by absentee ballots.

Democrats have vowed to fight any attempt to change “no excuse” absentee voting and Republican proponents of overhauling the state’s mail-in voting system got some bad news on Thursday when Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives David Ralston (R- Blue Ridge) said that he would not support changing the “no excuse” absentee ballot rules that are currently in place.  Ralston said, “Somebody’s got to make a real strong case to convince me otherwise.”

Ralston is supporting measures for strengthening Georgia’s Voter ID laws an is also leaning towards supporting letting the General Assembly appoint Georgia’s Secretary of State, instead of the voters being able to elect the Secretary of State.

How all of these issues play out in the 2021 Legislative Session between the different factions within the state’s Republican Party remains to be seen.