New State Election Rules Come Under Fire

ATLANTA - Voting rights advocates and local election officials Tuesday criticized new rules the Republican-controlled State Election Board has approved in recent weeks as unnecessary mandates that will only throw doubt into the voting process.

"This State Election Board has unleashed a Pandora's box of chaos and confusion," Isabel Otero, Georgia policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the state Senate's Urban Affairs Committee, a panel made up entirely of Democrats. "[The new rules] are going to give them an excuse to deny certification [of results] and cause unnecessary delays. ... Our voters deserve better."