Georgia Governor Passes Law Restricting Access to Voting

By Jane C. Timm - NBC News

Georgia Republicans approved new restrictive changes to the electoral process in that state on Thursday, after weeks of debate on how to toughen voting laws there.

The new legislation adds a series of additional restrictions to voters: they will be asked for more identification requirements to vote by mail, and it

will be illegal to bring food or water to voters waiting in line

to fill out their ballots.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law immediately, calling it "common sense" legislation, while aligning himself with comments from former President Donald Trump in support of the bill.

Trump unsubstantiated asserting that his Georgia election was stolen, pressuring Republican election officials to investigate his baseless allegations, and dismissing his claims that the election was safe and the results were legitimate.

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Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly took advantage of Trump's false claims and pushed through dozens of bills to restrict voting. 

Kemp said he and state lawmakers set out to make it "easy to vote and difficult to cheat."

"The bill that I signed does just that," he added.

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Democrat Stacey Abrams, founder of the voting rights group Fair Fight, said in a statement that the law was "blatantly unconstitutional."

Democrats unilaterally opposed the bill's passage, and Kemp's press conference was interrupted for several minutes.

The governor even asked behind the podium: "What is the problem?"

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, outside the courtroom,

Democratic State Representative Park Cannon, a black woman, was arrested

when she knocked on the door and was then dragged through the Capitol in handcuffs.

The 95-page bill adds a number of changes to the electoral process in Georgia. 

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It will dramatically shorten runoff elections from nine weeks to less than a month and reduce the early voting required for runoff elections from three weeks to one week.

In January, the second round elections sent Democratic senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to Washington, securing the majority of the party in the Senate.

The new legislation allows the state legislature to appoint the president of the State Board of Elections.

Previously, the Board was chaired by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who argued with Trump over the phone about the results of the state election.

It also allows the State Board of Elections to take over the electoral management of the counties.

Trump speaks during a rally in Georgia in early January AFP via Getty Images / AFP via Getty Images

The new law

will require voters by mail to include their driver's license numbers

or other documentation to verify their identity, rather than verification of their signature.

Ballot deposit boxes can only be located inside electoral offices and early voting places, which reduces their usefulness.

The law also shortens the time frame for requesting an absentee ballot.

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People will be banned from bringing food and water to voters waiting in line, something that has become common in past elections in Georgia, where voters have had to wait long hours to cast their vote in the past.

The new bill standardizes early voting statewide, which will likely lead to expanded early voting in many counties.

But it

standardizes the hours for most early voting between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

, which will likely limit the hours in larger counties like Fulton, which previously offered early voting until 7:00 p.m. p.m.

Georgia election officials work on the election ballots this November 4, 2020.

Biden appeared to be referring to some of Georgia's proposed restrictions on Thursday when asked about the issue at his press conference.

"It's sick

," Biden said. "Deciding in some states that you can't bring water to people who stand in line waiting to vote, deciding that voting will end at 5:00 when people who work have just left work."