PHOENIX – Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined a coalition of 16 states urging the United States District Court for the North District of Georgia to uphold Georgia’s recently-enacted election integrity measures. The attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting Georgia’s motion to dismiss in United States Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit in United States v. Georgia. Significantly, the coalition’s amicus brief relies heavily on the landmark decision of Brnovich v. DNC— citing the recent decision dozens of times.
"Election integrity should not be a partisan issue," said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. "The U.S. Supreme Court made it abundantly clear in Brnovich v. DNC that states have the ability to administer elections and pass laws to protect the integrity of the results. We stand with Georgia in fighting back against the meritless attack by the Biden-led Department of Justice."
The DOJ falsely claims Georgia’s election law (SB 202) suppresses minority voters. The DOJ and other Democrat leaders have even gone so far as to compare SB 202 to the laws of the Jim Crow-era laws. However, the attorneys general clearly demonstrate in their brief that it is absurd to compare the contexts of these election laws.
With all of the equality-assuring changes to and improvements to voting opportunities made in America's election laws, states have made it so easy to vote that everyone, regardless of race, income, or work schedule, is guaranteed a meaningful opportunity to vote. Today, 44 states, including Georgia, allow early voting for all voters. Georgia’s new law expands early in-person voting to 17 days. It also requires each county to offer two Saturdays of early voting with the option of adding two Sundays.
Additionally, states like Georgia and Arizona offer no-excuse absentee voting, where anyone can request a mail-in ballot. A handful of Democratic states, including President Biden’s home state of Delaware, require the approval of a faceless bureaucrat.
These recently-expanded voting opportunities require new voting laws. In Brnovich v. DNC, SCOTUS ruled that states can set the time, place, and manner of elections. For example, states that allow early voting must determine the hours of operation at early in-person voting locations, the length of time during which early voting will be permitted, and so on. It is not enough for states to merely ensure the integrity of their elections— they must also uphold the public’s confidence in the integrity of elections.
States must also pass laws to ensure bad actors do not abuse these new opportunities, especially mail-in voting. The bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and Secretary of State James Baker found that, “[a]bsentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud,” and states should pass laws to protect against it. In 2018, North Carolina officials had to invalidate the results of a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives because of ballot harvesting. Courts have repeatedly confirmed states don’t need to wait for voter fraud to occur in their state to pass laws to prevent it.
Attorney General Brnovich joins attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
In June 2021, Attorney General Brnovich sent a letter to Georgia's Attorney General offering help in this lawsuit.
Copy of the coalition’s brief here.