Bishop Reginald Thomas Jackson on Monday issued a fiery rebuke to a sweeping election bill introduced by Georgia’s republicans last week, calling it “ another attempt to suppress the black vote ” after the formerly red state turned blue in the presidential election and last month’s senate. runoffs.
Jackson, presiding prelate of the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Sixth Episcopal District, which includes more than 500 churches in the Peach State, condemned HB 531 in a hearing organized Monday by the Fair Fight Action voting rights group.
Among some provisions listed in the 48-page measure is a section that would require pre-voting for primaries, elections, and second finals to begin on the fourth Monday “immediately prior to” election day and end on the Friday. before. Voting takes place on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm and at the same hours on the second Saturday before a primary or election.
However, the counties and municipalities would be banned from holding early Sunday votes, a day that black churches in the state previously used to increase voter participation among congregants with “Souls to the Polls” efforts.
“The Black Church has always been trying to get our people to vote,” said Jackson. “So we used ‘Souls to the Polls’ mainly as a means of getting our seniors and other members of our congregations to vote, to gather for worship and after worship to go to the polls to cast our votes.”
Jackson said the new bill is “nothing more than another attempt to suppress the black vote.”
“Let’s face it, this bill is racist,” he continued, before addressing arguments advanced by Republican lawmakers in recent weeks, claiming that the new electoral bills after Democratic victories are aimed at increasing security.
“They say they are presenting this legislation because the citizens of Georgia have no confidence in the election, that there are suspicions, that there was a lot of fraud in the vote,” he said, referring to the November presidential election.
There were three recounts. There has been an audit. There was a lawsuit after a lawsuit. All three recounts did not change the outcome. The audit has not changed the outcome. Every lawsuit was dismissed because they were unfounded and had no evidence of fraud, ”said Jackson.
“If the Republicans had won, there would be no bill on voting in this legislature,” he added.
Another bill passed last week by a Senate subcommittee during a party line vote was designed to halt no-excuse voting in the state after it saw a record voter turnout in November.
In addition to limiting the days when residents can vote early in the state, HB 531 would also further limit when a voter can request an absentee vote and when election officials can send it to voters, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB).
Former President Trump
Donald Trump Former Florida Officer Arrested After Livestreaming From Capitol During Trespass, FBI Says Schumer Says He’s Working To Find Votes To Confirm Biden’s OMB Choice Pence Declined Invite To Attend CPAC: Reports MORE and other Republicans have been heavily criticized in recent months for repeating baseless conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud following his November defeat.
“It was the same Republicans who passed these laws a few years ago that provided for absentee ballots, that provided for early votes, that provided ballot boxes,” Jackson said. “These same Republicans, when it worked for them, there was nothing wrong with them. But now that blacks and people of color are using these processes to vote, that’s why they’re saying we need to stop it.”
Hillary Holley, a Fair Fight Action spokeswoman, called the Republicans’ measure “ a massive bill for suppressing voters’ ‘during the organization’s hearing on the legislation on Monday, saying “ that they have voting rights organizations and election officials on both sides of it. left aisle with just a few hours to review. “
Holley added that this is part of why Fair Fight Action “has decided to hold daily hearings so that members of the public, members of the press and Georgian lawmakers really have a chance to understand what is going on in this bill. state.”
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and the Southern Poverty Law Center also testified in the Georgia House of Representatives’ Special Election Integrity Committee, where HB 531 was introduced Friday to express opposition “in the strongest possible terms” to the measure.
The bill, the groups in the testimony said, is “ poised to create unnecessary barriers and burdens for voters that will disproportionately impact racial minority, low-income, elderly, rural, disabled and / or student voters – rather than promoting ways to expand political participation. on the heels of the growing participation of Georgians in elections. “
The measure, they noted, also comes “revealing” in the wake of a historic election in which black Georgians represented 30.3% of absent voters, and a total of 36.7% of postal voters were Georgians of color; where more than 17% of absent voters were younger than thirty-five. ”
In addition to opposing the bill’s provision that limits the number of days that Georgia residents can vote early, the groups are also targeting another provision with photo-identification requirements for absentee voting – a practice they say has had a “disparate impact” on “historically disenfranchised groups”.
“If passed, the prospect of these provisions, coupled with the required photo ID, will pose an unbearable and discriminatory barrier to entry to the ballot box for voters in Georgia, especially for voters of color,” the groups added.