ATLANTA — As people head to the polls for early voting, election security is top of mind.
Tuesday, a new bill could be re-introduced that would better protect election workers. 11Alive got a sneak peek at the changes.
Instead of increasing criminal penalties, a new version of House Bill 1118 would seek to protect all election workers, not just poll workers, from threats and harassment.
The bill is inspired by the experience of former Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The mother-daughter duo endured death threats from across the nation after former President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani accused them of election fraud, a claim that was quickly debunked.
Since the 2020 election, counties have struggled to hire election workers.
“We’ve seen a couple things in recent years: a huge increase in threats and harassments of election workers, especially in the weeks and months after the 2020 election and we’ve seen a huge decline in the number of people who are willing to take these jobs,” Rep. Saira Draper said.
Rep. Saira Draper, Georgia House Representative for District 90, sponsors the bill.
She said that along with expanding current protections to all election workers, such as contract workers, part-time workers, seasonal workers, and credentialed observers, the bill would also protect an election worker’s personal information from Freedom of Information requests.
She’s also adding language to the bill that would require the State Election Board to compile a report about how many threats are reported to the Attorney General’s hotline.
“Our election workers are democracy heroes. They are on the front lines to making sure our politics, our government works, so we have to ensure their safety,” Rep. Draper said.
Rep. Draper is currently tweaking the language of the bill and hopes to resubmit it to the Judiciary Committee Tuesday, adding another layer of security in an important election season.