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By Maggie Lee _Updated with a new fourth paragraph, information about provisions to narrow weekend voting in the bill that have caused controversy._ Atlanta voters are unique in the state
because every four years their polls are open until 8 p.m., an hour later than anywhere else in the state. A Georgia Senate bill would close all polls at 7 p.m. The point is to make voting
hours uniform everywhere, said state Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, explaining his Senate Bill 363 to a state Senate committee on Wednesday. “The spirit of the Voting Rights Act is one person
one vote, and one person should not be allowed to vote one hour longer than another person,” he said, at a state House panel hearing on his bill Wednesday. However, what escaped discussion,
and maybe notice, at a roughly seven-minute hearing was another part of the bill, which would ban counties from offering early voting on both Saturday and Sunday. Counties would have to
choose one. Democrats see it as a GOP plan to keep folks who vote blue away from the polls. It’s seen as a potential threat to “souls to the polls” initiatives at some churches that
encourage voting after Sunday service, or to folks whose work schedules don’t give them many weekdays off. The Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church told the Associated Press the
current proposal amounts to “electoral ethnic cleansing.” The hearing focused on what was originally in the bill about polling hours. Atlanta polls are open until 8 p.m. during municipal
elections — like the ones last year. And it was an administrative nightmare, according to Fulton County Director of Election and Registrations Rick Barron, who supports that change. The
election would have been administratively easier if it had been limited to city offices. What made it difficult was how to accommodate special elections for offices higher up the chain of
government that cross city and county boundaries. The city poll was on the same day as a vote for Fulton County Commission chair and a state Senate seat. Barron asked a court to keep all
Fulton polling places open until 8 p.m., to keep voting hours uniform for everyone casting a ballot in that commission race. DeKalb, however, didn’t do the same for the entire county — it
only kept the polls open later for city of Atlanta voting, not for a county tax vote. And Cobb, which shares part of that state Senate district, closed its polls for that race earlier than
Fulton did. State Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Albany, sped his Governmental Affairs Committee to a voice vote in about 10 minutes. But not before several metro Democrats raised questions. State Rep.
Mary Margaret Oliver verified that 8 p.m closing only happens in Atlanta, and then asked if it was an anti-voting rights bill in Atlanta. Rep. Renitta Shannon wanted to know who asked for
the bill in the first place. Brass said “Fulton County” asked him to bring the bill, but would not elaborate on that, except to say “people that represent the county.” The Fulton County
Commission did not ask for the bill, according to a spokeswoman. And state Rep. Bee Nguyen, an Atlanta-in-DeKalb legislator, asked if anyone thought of extending hours statewide instead of
cutting them in Atlanta. Rynders said they didn’t want to put an “unfunded mandate”on other counties and cities. Nguyen said that she has a letter from the DeKalb Board of Elections in
opposition to the change. Brass said he was not approached by anyone from DeKalb about the bill. SB 363 already passed the Senate on a party-line vote. The Wednesday committee voice vote
wasn’t unanimous and the nays seemed to all come from Democrats. _SR has left a message with the office of DeKalb’s election supervisor seeking comment, and will update this space with any
comments that arrive._ _RELATED POSTS_