ATLANTA — A Georgia elections bill that would authorize paper ballot inspections and Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) fraud investigations cleared its committee Thursday, setting up a likely vote in the state House within days.
The committee vote was split along party lines, with Republicans saying the legislation would improve security and Democrats criticizing another round of changes to voting rules following last year’s sweeping elections overhaul.
The measure is the latest effort by the Republican majority in the General Assembly to rework election procedures in response to complaints from the party’s voters about the 2020 election, when Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump in Georgia by about 12,000 votes.
