A wave of new voting laws has sparked a stir among progressive activists, leading some large corporations to take a political stance. Some companies and executives have objected to the new bills, particularly in Georgia.
Amazon, General Motors and others have released a joint statement opposing voting restrictions. Earlier this month, Major League Baseball reportedly moved the All-Star Game out of Georgia in protest of the new bill, and the Delta Airlines CEO said the voting bill was “unacceptable.”
Well, the companies clearly have no idea what they are talking about because [from] With many of their objections, it’s pretty clear they haven’t actually read the bill, ”said Hans von Spakovsky, senior lawyer at the Heritage Foundation.
“They don’t seem to understand that … the requirements of Georgian law are not that different from many other states across the country,” he said. “In some ways their law is even less strict than in places like New York and New Jersey.”
The new law in Georgia requires voter identification for absenteeism votes, limits the use of dropboxes, and limits the distribution of food and water to voters lining up at the polls. Proponents believe these measures will increase security and confidence in elections.
Opponents of such bills say they target low-income voters who have less flexibility to vote during working hours and are less likely to have a driver’s license or other forms of identification.
“Georgia has benefited financially, perhaps more than any other state, from the success of the civil rights movement,” said People For the American Way president Ben Jealous.
“And so Governor Kemp shouldn’t find it surprising that if he wanted to throw his state back into Jim Crow, that big company and those companies would pull out of their involvement with his state,” Jealous said.
Watch the video above to find out how these voting laws caused a backlash from the company.