“It’s awful,” said US President Joe Biden of the electoral reform that Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp enacted this week. “We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.” The law “goes against American values to deprive voters of their right to vote,” said the Democratic President.
The new electoral law in the southern state makes it more difficult to vote by post and in some cases shortens the opening hours of the polling stations. It also gives the local parliament more powers to intervene in the conduct of an election. Critics argue that the Republicans’ main goal is to lower turnout among blacks and other minorities because they are more likely to vote for the Democrats. The Republicans, on the other hand, emphasize that it is about making elections safer.
No water for the snake
Third parties in Georgia will also be banned from addressing voters who are standing in line – even offering water or food is now strictly prohibited. Biden said the Republicans created the long lines themselves by reducing the number of polling stations – “disproportionately in black neighborhoods”. And with regard to the racist Jim Crow laws, which were used to oppress blacks in the USA until the 1960s, he said: “This is Jim Crow in the 21st century.”
The influential civil rights organization ACLU also declared that the electoral reform “undermines our democracy and the political power of black voters”. Several organizations filed complaints against the law.
Biden’s predecessor and opponent Donald Trump, on the other hand, said Georgia had learned the lessons of the “farce” in the 2020 presidential election. “Too bad these changes weren’t made sooner!” Trump added. Biden won the state by a narrow margin in November. It was the first time in nearly three decades that a Democrat secured the votes to enter the White House. Because of the corona pandemic, the number of postal votes was particularly high.
wa / AR (dpa, afp)