ACLU of Georgia says community advocacy helped block election bill on Crossover Day

Crossover Day was a late night for Georgia lawmakers and advocacy groups at the state Capitol.

Shruti Lakshmanan, a policy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia, said they were at the Capitol until 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning making it one of the latest Crossover Days in history.

“The entire day we had community members coming down to the Capitol to speak face to face with lawmakers about voting rights, about First Amendment rights, and bills that were under consideration,” she said. “Their advocacy made a difference. None of the bills they were advocating against moved forward that day.”

One of the bills that failed to pass the state Senate on Crossover Day was Senate Bill 568, what Lakshmanan called an election omnibus.

“This bill would have made really harmful changes to Georgia’s election laws and restricted voter access,” she said.

The bill failed by just one vote.

However, Lakshmanan said they are expecting different aspects of the bill to appear in other legislation as “zombie” bills, meaning a provision of the bill could be added to another bill that survived Crossover Day through an amendment.

“We have to be really vigilant to ensure that none of our, what we presume, are dead bills are resurrected in another bill that did cross over,” she said. “But the fact that that bill did not cross over is just a recognition of how harmful so much of that bill was and how it really would have potentially removed access to the ballot box for a lot of people.”

Bills to watch

Lakshmanan said there are a few bills that did survive Crossover Day that they are keeping a close watch on for the remainder of session.

Here are some bills the ACLU is concerned about:

• Senate Bill 74 would criminalize librarians for allowing minors to access content deemed harmful. It passed the Senate last year and a House committee this year making it eligible for a vote in the House anytime.
• Senate Bill 443 and House Bill 1076 would increase penalties for offenses that are often associated with protests.

Community advocacy

Lakshmanan said the 2026 Legislative Session has been great for the ACLU of Georgia. They approached this session with the theme, “Good Trouble Under the Gold Dome,” which is a reference to the late John Lewis, a Civil Rights icon. 

The organization hosted a Pack the Capitol day, which brought 400 community members to the state Capitol to speak with lawmakers.

“The idea behind it is that we’re not approaching this legislative session as business as usual. Our lawmakers are making decisions right now that will affect our family, neighbors and generations of Georgians for years to come,” she said. “We recognize that democracy doesn’t defend itself. It depends on people showing up. It depends on people speaking out and making their voices and presence at the Capitol impossible to ignore.”