“Recount after recount and trial after trial affirmed the integrity and outcome of a clearly free, fair and secure democratic process,” Biden said in a White House statement, referring to the 2020 election when he became first. Democratic presidential candidate in nearly three decades to win the state.
Georgia is the first presidential battleground to impose new ballot restrictions after Biden’s victory in the state, but the bill, signed Thursday night by Republican Governor Brian Kemp, is part of a national Republican effort to get access to the ballot after 2020 to limit. elections saw a record turnout.
“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end,” Biden said in the statement, noting how the restrictions are disproportionately targeting black voters.
Georgia’s new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, limits the use of ballots, makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water, and gives government officials more power over local elections.
Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or win campaigns based on their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote. like so many others being pursued by Republicans in state houses across the country is a blatant assault on the constitution and a good conscience, “Biden said.
Shortly after releasing the statement, the president told reporters outside the White House that Georgian law was “an atrocity.”
“If you want an indication that it has nothing to do with fairness, nothing to do with decency – they passed a law that says you can’t give water to people standing in line while they wait to vote. Biden said earlier. boarding Marine One.
Voting advocates say the newly signed bill in Georgia underscores the need for federal law to establish a national standard for voting rules.
Biden concluded his statement by saying that he will “take his case to the American people – including Republicans who joined the widest coalition of voters ever in the last election to propose the country to the party.”
‘If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote, ”Biden said.
Georgia has become a crucial state politically. In addition to Biden’s victory, two Democrats won elections earlier this year that reversed control of the US Senate.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki spoke out against the law at the White House briefing earlier Friday, saying, “It shouldn’t be harder, it should be easier to vote. We shouldn’t impose restrictions. . ”
Psaki said Friday, “I think anyone who saw that video would have been deeply concerned about the actions the police took to arrest her, when she simply seemed to knock on the door from the video that was provided. to see if she could see how a law was signed. ‘
This story has been updated with additional comments and background information.