Georgia introduces sweeping voter restrictions

Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp on Thursday signed into law a sweeping elections bill that would impose new restrictions on voting in the state that helped Democrats win the White House and gain razor thin control of the U.S. Senate.

The legislation adds a new ID requirement for absentee ballots, limits ballot drop boxes, and makes it a misdemeanor crime to give food or drinks to voters waiting in long lines.

BIDEN: "What I'm worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It is sick.”

Democrats and voting rights activists say the bill is among the country's most damaging attempts to limit voting, and say it's designed to reduce the influence of Black voters.

The Georgia legislation - which Republicans say would make voting more secure - is one of more than 250 bills Republicans have filed nationwide proposing new voting limits since former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

Republicans have seized on Trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud to push for the restrictions, and on Thursday, President Joe Biden blasted these efforts as un-American:

BIDEN: "The Republican voters I know find this despicable.”

“I mean, this is gigantic, what they're trying to do. And it cannot be sustained.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday denounced Georgia's legislation, bluntly calling it an ‘anti-voter bill.’