Georgia elections overhaul gutted by state Senate committee, setting up potential showdown – By Fredreka Schouten (CNN) / March 29, 2022
(CNN) A Georgia state Senate committee on Tuesday gutted a controversial elections overhaul — a day after local election officials from both parties blasted it as complicating their work in an election year.
The fate of the massive bill — which sped through the GOP-led state House earlier this month — is now uncertain and could result in a showdown in the final days of Georgia’s legislative session.
In its vote Tuesday, the Senate Ethics Committee stripped out most of the House-approved provisions, including one that would hand new election policing powers to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The panel advanced only one slice of the original 40-page bill: a requirement that employers provide time off for workers to cast their ballots during the state’s early voting period. Current Georgia law mandates time off only on Election Day.
