Georgia, United States.
Actor / producer Will Smith won’t be filming his next movie, “Emancipation”, in the state of Georgia (US) in protest at the controversial electoral reform just approved by Republican lawmakers.
“We cannot conscientiously support a government that comes into being regressive voting laws that they are designed to restrict voters’ access, ”the actor assured in a statement Monday with the film’s director, Antoine Fuqua.
During the past years, Georgia has become a manufacturing center very attractive to the film industry, thanks to the tax benefits it offers.
Some call this state its nickname “Hollywood del sur de EE.UU.” and the arrival of creative industry professionals is one of the reasons put forward by experts to explain the demographic change it has undergone, as demonstrated by the Democrats’ victory in the last election.
According to Smith and Fuqua, the electoral reform approved by the Republicans after those elections “is reminiscent of the barriers to suffrage” that existed on previous occasions that “robbed many Americans of the vote.”
“Right now, the country is taking its history and trying to eliminate the remnants of institutional racism in order to achieve true justice,” they reasoned.
The rejection of the film industry contributes to the rejection of large companies such as Coca Cola, Apple and Delta, which also operate in Georgia.
According to opponents, the Republican-approved electoral reform limits voting rights because it adds new requirements in case they want to do so by mail, makes more demands on registering and identifying themselves, and prohibits actions such as giving voters food and drink that they wait in long lines to deposit their ballots in busy centers, among other places.
Postal voting was essential in the last general election due to the pandemic, and was the favorite target of the former president Donald Trump (2017-2021), who did not cease to criticize him and consider him, without proof, a source of electoral fraud.
One hundred American business leaders discussed their response to the list of electoral reforms being pushed by Republican lawmakers in 47 states this weekend.