Had these laws been in force in 2020, would they have changed the vote tally and if so, by how much?

Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger

The spotlight will be turned on former president Trump when a Fulton County grand jury is seated this week to begin determining if Trump’s pressure on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him find the 11,780 votes he needed to overturn the state’s election result in his favor is a criminal offense.

That case will get all the publicity, but quietly, the Georgia state senate voted 37-18 on a comprehensive voter reform package , including identity checks for those who request absentee ballots. Residents will have to provide either their driver’s license number or another state-issued ID. First-time voters who don’t yet have a state ID will need to show another form of identification.

Perhaps the most important change is that county election boards will be required to publicly post the total number of ballots received — from both in-person and mail — before they begin tabulating the vote. This information will be available online, so there will be no surprises like there were in November 2020, when nobody knew in advance how many votes were actually cast, where they were coming from, or when they were coming in. These measures now go to the Georgia House of Representatives for their consideration.

Had these laws been in force in 2020, would they have changed the vote tally and if so, by how much? We’ll never know, but voters have every right to demand that their votes be counted quickly and accurately and that the system be totally transparent.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 852)