This bill would close a critical loophole in Georgia’s election law. Praise God!

From The Federalist. The Georgia Senate passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to prohibit local election offices from working around state law to use any kind of private funding to conduct elections.

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Known as SB 222, the measure stipulates that all “costs and expenses related to conducting primaries, elections, runoffs, or other undertakings authorized or required by [state law] shall be paid from lawfully appropriated public funds.”

“[N]o county or municipal government, government employee, or election official shall solicit, take, or otherwise accept from any person a contribution, donation, service, or anything else of value for the purpose of conducting primaries or elections or in support of performing his or her duties under this chapter,” the measure reads. If signed into law, any local government or election official who accepted such funds prior to the law’s implementation would be required to return the gift “to the entity which provided such thing of value within 14 days.” …

The bill was introduced after DeKalb County, a Democrat stronghold, recently announced it had been selected to join the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence after the county’s commissioners accepted a $2 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). …

While Georgia Republicans passed a law (SB 202) in 2021 banning the private funding of local election offices, DeKalb officials used a loophole in the statute to justify accepting the grant from the Alliance. Instead of having their election office accept the funds, DeKalb officials had the county’s finance department apply for the grant. As Democrat and DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith admitted, this was done “since election offices are not allowed to receive grants directly.” …

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(Excerpt from The Federalist. Photo Credit: Element5 Digital on Unsplash)