Vox

Blame John Roberts and Donald Trump.

The complaint in United States v. Georgia, which is signed by the most senior lawyers in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, alleges that several provisions of the Georgia law “were adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging Black citizens’ equal access to the political process, in violation” of the Voting Rights Act.

The DOJ does not attack the entire Georgia law, and it does not directly attack the single most troubling provision of the law, which allows Republican officials to effectively take over local election boards that have the power to close polling places and disqualify voters.

Instead, the lawsuit focuses on several provisions making it harder to cast an absentee ballot in Georgia. It also targets provisions that disenfranchise many voters who cast a ballot in the wrong precinct, as well as the Georgia law’s provision prohibiting pro-democracy groups from distributing food and water to voters waiting in long lines to cast a ballot.