Once again, all eyes are on Georgia. On Thursday, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a startingly vicious and partisan bill into law. As one might imagine, Kemp’s bill of choice was one of far-reaching voter suppression. As my colleague Joan McCarter covered in-depth, the law includes limits on ballot drop-off boxes (remember Donald Trump’s hysteria about those?), makes it harder for election workers to literally count ballots, adds barriers to Georgia’s already difficult absentee voting process, and reduces early voting options for runoff elections. Whew.
As my colleague Jen Hayden covered, the icing on the horror cake is the viral image of Kemp signing this bill into law while surrounded by white men under a painting of a Georgia plantation (which is described in great depth in this Twitter thread). And, as Daily Kos also covered, a Black legislator, Rep. Park Cannon, was literally arrested by Georgia State Troopers for just doing her job. In all of this, whose voice rings clear? None other than Stacey Abrams. Let’s check out her response to the bill below, as well as what people are sharing on social media.
Abrams explains that in her more than decade of experience, she’s never seen a bill approved so quickly. And of course, it’s not because Republicans are efficient. It’s because, as Abrams says, they want to “hide their shameful actions from public scrutiny.”
Then Abrams describes these efforts to suppress voting rights as “nothing less than Jim Crow 2.0,” which just about sums it up perfectly.
Abrams also tweeted this moving graphic.
Using the same Jim Crow language, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren noted our “democracy is at stake” in a tweet with the video of Cannon’s arrest.
In addition to the tweets above, Abrams is incredibly inspiring in the video below, where she talks about voter suppression being the “lazy man’s way of winning an election.” People are tired, people are fed up. But Abrams doesn’t want anyone to stop fighting. Framing the trail of voting rights and access from the inception of the United States (when less than 10% of people could vote) until now, as Abrams argues, we’ve already made leaps and bounds of progress, and we will continue to do so as long as we continue practicing democracy and fighting for it.
Check out that awesome video below. It’s less than two minutes and the bit of energy every single one of us needs today.
As AJC reporter Greg Bluestein tweeted, both Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola (both of which have headquarters in Atlanta) have faced criticism for not explicitly opposing election restrictions in the state. Bluestein tweeted statements from both companies below in which they pledge to have more active engagement.
As we know, Georgia voters already faced incredible barriers just to exercise their right to vote. While these new restrictions while harm all Georgia voters, they’re especially vicious for voters of color, people with disabilities, and unhoused populations. Fighting for democracy means fighting for equal access to all, even—and especially—the most marginalized among us.
Sign and send the petition: SB202 threatens Georgia's economy with its all-out assault on our democratic process. We are outraged that you allowed this to happen.