Wednesday on Political Rewind: Religious leaders representing more than 1,000 churches staged a voting rights rally at the state Capitol yesterday. They said they will use Georgia’s new election laws as proof that congress must pass federal legislation removing barriers they say limit access to the vote for minority communities.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are facing resistance from Republicans to pass any election reform measure, including a bill named for the late Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

Our panel discuss how more restrictive election laws, passed in Georgia and many other GOP-led states, can ultimately affect turnout. Emory University's Dr. Bernard Fraga said it is difficult to detect the influence of individual provisions, such as changes to absentee ballot voting periods or polling station closing times.

"All of these [measures] might interact with each other to depress turnout among certain groups or depress turnout overall, even though a single provision, in isolation, might not have much of a detectable effect," Fraga said.

In other news today, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed filed the paperwork necessary to run in his year's mayoral race.

Panelists:

Dr. Bernard Fraga — Professor of Political Science, Emory University

Rep. Sam Park — State Representative (D-Gwinnett County)

Mayor Julie Smith — Mayor of Tifton

Greg Bluestein — Politics Reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution