Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who defied Trump’s pleas in a telephone call to find votes to overturn Biden’s victory, also asserted that “the cries of ‘voter suppression’ from those on the left ring hollow” when it comes to the new law. “There is nothing ‘Jim Crow’ about requiring a photo or state-issued ID to vote by absentee ballot – every Georgia voter must already do so when voting in-person,” Kemp said on Friday. Republicans in Georgia have pushed back on Biden’s assessment of the new law. “If you want any indication that it has nothing to do with fairness, nothing to do with decency – they passed a law saying you can’t provide water for people standing in line while they’re waiting to vote,” Biden said before boarding Marine One. Shortly after releasing the statement, the President told reporters outside the White House that the Georgia law was “an atrocity.” This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience,” Biden said. “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote. Georgia’s new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water and gives state officials more power over local elections. Georgia's new law suppressing the vote is a victory for Trump (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP People wait in line to vote in Decatur, Ga., Monday, Oct. It must end,” Biden said in the statement, noting how the restrictions disproportionately target Black voters, who proved crucial to recent Democratic victories in Georgia. The election results in the battleground state were unsuccessfully disputed by then-President Donald Trump, whose lies about voter fraud have given rise to measures like Georgia’s, which he praised in a statement Friday.īut Biden has minced no words as to whether he thinks the provisions are racially motivated.
Brian Kemp signed into law Thursday evening, is part of a national Republican effort to restrict access to the ballot after the 2020 election saw record turnout.īiden narrowly won the state of Georgia last fall, the first Democratic presidential nominee to pull it off since 1992. Georgia is the first presidential battleground to impose new voting restrictions following Biden’s victory in the state, but the bill, which Republican Gov. “Recount after recount and court case after court case upheld the integrity and outcome of a clearly free, fair, and secure democratic process,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House, referring to the 2020 election, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate in nearly three decades to win the state.
In a statement released earlier Friday, Biden called on Congress to pass voting rights legislation that would counter restrictions Republicans are trying to push through at the state level across the country. The Justice Department’s taking a look as well.”Ī spokesperson for the Justice Department told CNN earlier Friday that the agency is “aware of the law,” but had no further comment. We don’t know quite exactly what we can do at this point. President Joe Biden on Friday called a sweeping elections bill signed into law in Georgia “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and “an atrocity,” saying the Justice Department is “taking a look” at the measure.Īsked if there was anything the White House could do to protect voting rights in Georgia, Biden told reporters on a tarmac in Delaware, “We’re working on that right now.
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