- Just months after Democrats won the presidential race and two Senate seats in Georgia for the first time in decades, state Republicans passed and signed Senate Bill 202 yesterday, which will massively restrict voting access in the state. [NYT / Nick Corasaniti]
- The bill passed along party lines and was quickly signed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), ostensibly as a response to claims of election fraud that have been proven false, as protesters called it “Jim Crow 2.0.” Voting organizations have already filed federal lawsuits alleging the bill discriminates against voters of color, young voters, voters with disabilities, and low-income voters. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Mark Niesse]
- The bill imposes new ID requirements to vote, limits the number of ballot drop boxes, criminalizes giving voters in lines food or water, permits the state election board to replace local election boards, eases the ability to challenge voting eligibility, shortens the runoff period from nine weeks to four, and forbids local election offices from taking breaks while counting votes. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]
- State Rep. Park Cannon (D) was arrested yesterday after knocking on Kemp’s door to watch the bill signing. Democrats and activists rushed to her defense; Cannon was released but now faces a charge of obstructing law enforcement. Video of her being pulled away by white police officers as she repeats that she is a state legislator called back imagery of the civil rights era, underscoring activists’ points about the racist nature of the bill. [NPR / Jaclyn Diaz]
- The bill’s passage is a clear win for former President Donald Trump, who falsely alleged massive voter fraud in the 2020 election as the source of his loss — what's being called the "big lie." GOP state legislators are using that lie as the impetus to introduce similar bills in several states. [CNN / Stephen Collinson]
- Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate turned voting rights activist, condemned the bill. She advocated for Democrats to pass a filibuster exception in the Senate to enact HR 1, a bill that would enshrine voting protections and improve voter access. [Guardian / Sam Levine]
- A majority of likely voters also support eliminating the filibuster to pass the voting rights bill, according to a recent poll from Vox and Data for Progress. President Biden has left the door open to filibuster reform or exceptions as well. [Vox / Li Zhou]
- Those new laws have met with significant pushback, leaving Republicans scrambling to argue that the laws actually make it easier to vote, not harder. This is not true. Former Wall Street Journal correspondent Douglas Blackmon wrote a tremendously clear thread on Twitter spelling out how the Georgia law, for example, makes it illegal for Georgia voting officials to send absentee applications to each voter, and makes it harder to get absentee ballots. It eliminates most drop boxes for ballots, as well, and makes it harder for working people to vote. Blackmon says the law’s “intent seems to be causing much longer & slower lines at the polls, which… will mean large numbers of working class, elderly, and sick voters who just give up and go home.”
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