Tax cuts. Immigration crackdowns. New election requirements.
Georgia Republicans are including eight policy questions on ballots for the May 21 primaries that offer a glimpse of the party’s election-year priorities.
The questions are nonbinding, meaning they can only be used to measure support for policies and won’t result in a change in law or carry legal weight. Still, they serve as informal measures of popular opinion.
The Georgia Republican and Democratic parties choose these questions for each of their ballots. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published the Democratic ballot earlier this week.
The GOP slate of questions includes queries on whether voters want hand-marked paper ballots, a closed system that only allows registered Republicans to vote in primaries and new requirements for voters to renew their registration every four years.
It also includes pointed questions on two contentious debates. One surveys Republicans on whether “public officials who allow illegal migration to occur be held responsible for crimes committed by illegal aliens.”
That’s a reference to conservative criticism of immigration policies in Athens-Clarke County, where an undocumented immigrant is charged with the murder of a nursing student whose death has become a national flashpoint.
Another asks whether registered lobbyists should be banned from serving on the State Elections Board. The Georgia GOP has taken aim at former GOP state Rep. Ed Lindsey, a lobbyist and lawyer who opposed a recent push to limit no-excuse absentee voting.
Each of the questions is typically worded by the parties to deliver a “yes” vote. In 2018, for instance, Democrats overwhelmingly backed Medicaid expansion, substantial mass transit spending and banning bump stocks. Republicans four years later supported eliminating ballot drop boxes.
But sometimes the questions yield surprising results, like in 2012 when a slim majority of GOP voters voiced support for casino gambling. This year’s ballot touches on the issue again, asking whether a decision to legalize gambling should go to a statewide vote.
Here are the Republican ballot questions:
· For future elections, do you want hand marked paper ballots, scanned and verified by hand count on live stream video?
· Should the legislature enact the FairTax replacing the state income tax and state sales tax with a consumption tax equal to current state funding and taxing no legal citizen or family up to the poverty level of spending?
· Should the legislature ban registered lobbyists from serving on the State Elections Board?
· Should the Georgia Republican Primary have a closed primary, meaning that only registered Republicans would be allowed to vote in the Republican Primary?
· Should public officials who allow illegal migration to occur be held responsible for crimes committed by illegal aliens?
· Would you support a statewide vote to allow gaming in Georgia so the voters can decide this issue instead of politicians in Atlanta?
· Currently, hundreds of thousands of hours and dollars are spent every year cleaning up voter rolls. Would you support an amendment to the National Voting Rights Act that would require registered voters to renew their registration every four years?
· Do you believe unelected and unaccountable international bureaucrats, like the UN controlled World Health Organization (WHO), should have complete control over management of future pandemics in the United States and authority to regulate your healthcare and personal health choices?
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