FACT BRIEF

Did Georgia repeal a signature-matching procedure for absentee ballots?

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

By Gus Fisher

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YES

Georgia’s recent election-reform legislation repealed a provision that allowed election officials to reject absentee ballots with signatures that don’t match those the state has on file.

The new law states that previous signature-matching requirements were deemed “subjective” by “Georgians on all sides of the political spectrum.” The changes require that voter identity should now be verified using a driver’s license ID number or social security number in place of signature matching.

Last year, the Georgia Democratic Party and Georgia’s secretary of state reached a legal settlement over several disputed voting rules. Part of the settlement reinforced the signature-matching procedure that the new law repeals. The new legislation does not repeal the entire 2020 settlement.

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Sources

State of Georgia Georgia Senate Bill SB 202—The Election Integrity Act of 2021

Democracy Docket 2020 legal settlement between state of Georgia and Democratic Party

Georgia Public Broadcasting What does Georgia’s new voting law SB 202 do?

11Alive WXIA (Atlanta) Georgia election official says Trump is ‘flat out, 100 percent, four square wrong’ about consent decree

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