The battle for a law that increases the black vote in the United States | International

Hannah Gebresilassie, a brash 30-year-old activist seasoned in a massive number of battles, believes she has a lot to do with the historic turnaround that the long-standing Conservative stronghold of Southern Georgia has voted in. last november. Also, in the electoral law that the Republicans later promoted and which, of course, became their new war front. Gebresilassie spent months mobilizing the vote in communities that normally participate less – blacks and other minorities, as well as other disadvantaged – in a campaign that boils down to the following: “We were many organizations involved, we helped the poor. people to register. to vote, we took people who needed it by car to schools, we made sure they showed up on the day of the due date, we gave pizza and water to those doing the queuing for hours… ”.

With the new legislation, the latter will be a crime. Georgia’s Electoral Integrity Law, passed by a Republican-majority House on March 25, introduces a series of voting restrictions for all, but which, as a result, makes it difficult for the most disadvantaged groups to vote, in which the Democrats are calling it a deliberate move to reduce participation of blacks in particular, who played a key role in turning the last election on a gradual basis.

Among other changes, the rule expands the territories for advance and mail voting, but shortens the time frame (from 180 to 78 days) to request it and requires photo ID to obtain it; reduced the number of mailboxes to drop them off compared to 2020, when they were put in place due to the pandemic; veto early voting beyond 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and allows counties to further reduce this timeframe: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It also strengthens the legislative chamber’s power over the electoral process, which gives rise to great fears given the pulse of the last elections.

And, indeed, in these traditionally long queues which form at the polling stations – some, lasting several hours – which come to deliver food or drinks – if they do so at 45 meters from the site or at 25 meters from the queue. commit a crime. The argument of the lawmakers is that the groups which devote themselves to it are trying to condition the vote in the home stretch.

Republican state governor Brian Kemp assured that the approved legislation “makes the vote easier and harder to cheat” – words that have given rise to the traditional suspicion of massive voter fraud by Conservative voters and that at the time presidential election of 2020 reached a climax thanks to a promoter of luxury: then President Donald Trump. “People never thought in their lives that Georgia would turn blue [el color con el que se identifica al Partido Demócrata en Estados Unidos] and this law is a direct response to the entire black community and to other minorities who came to vote, ”explains Gebresilassie, also black.

The activist, promoter of Protect the vote GA, speaks in the middle of the street, in one of the major arteries through Atlanta, with a sign in hand calling for justice for Jamarion Robinson, a young black man killed by the police in 2016, during a police operation. After the November 3 election, several Republican states, such as Iowa, Texas and Arizona pushed for other electoral reforms with similar characteristics, but nowhere does this battle assume so much symbolism and force. than in Georgia, with its history of racial violence. , and in particular in Atlanta.

The birthplace of Martin Luther King and John Lewis, the city occupies Fulton County, one of those lands where Donald Trump left half of the presidency. It is also the seat of flagships of the American economy, such as Coca-Cola or Delta, which have taken a stand against the law, fueling a parallel conflict and calling for a boycott. Georgia is also the place where, for the first time in decades, two Democratic senators were elected and, at the very least, handed control to Joe Biden’s party in Washington’s upper house.

For the former Republican president, it has become an obsession. It was Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, whom he telephoned in early January to insist on his theory of fraud and insist on “finding” the “11780 the votesWith which the outcome of the entire state would be reversed. Raffensperger has endured the pressure, but the new law would also change this chapter of history if it is repeated. With the change, the occupant of this post will have less power, because he will cease to be a member of the State Electoral Council and the latter will have the power to dismiss the local or departmental authorities in charge of the electoral process in the event of neglect. .

Republicans argue that their law, in fact, extends early voting in some territories, guarantees the termination of corrupt officials, and, as with the water controversy, workers at the center can provide drinks. They will also continue to manufacture more voting boxes than there were in 2016.

Two emblematic barbers of the city welcome these two poles of thought. One, by Tommy Thomas, has been a regular stop for notable Republican politicians for years, as photos on the walls show, including a large red hat with Trump’s slogan: “Make America Great Again.” The other, Bobby’s Barbershop, exhibits photographs of Barack Obama, Kamala Harris or the late John Lewis – one of their illustrious clients – as well as a design of George Floyd’s face and a poster with the slogan: Black lives matter.

In the first, Thomas, a middle-aged man who embodies the generation at the helm of the company, responds quickly and decisively, like a torrent over the contested law: “I think it’s great, when I go to the bank or when I get on the plane I teach driving license, even when I want to buy a bottle of alcohol, at my age I have to show it. It’s not fair that people can request a remote vote without presenting one, we should all have a card, ”explains the barber.

Personal identification is one of those most difficult disputes to understand outside of the United States. There is no national identity document in this country. The most common form of identification is a driver’s license or some other type of document issued by states, but many citizens (entities such as the Brenan Institute and others carry it to 11% of the population – normally older, poor or excluded) – they do not have them or they are not updated, because they do not have the necessary supporting documents to obtain them and the process of obtaining costs a fee that they cannot not pay.

Thomas was one of those surprised by the Republican defeat. According to him, “there have been frauds, although there are those who say not enough to change the elections”. “I don’t know exactly,” he adds, “did they steal from us? Probably, but today is another day. We are going to organize ourselves better ”.

From the front door of Bobby’s Barbershop, Samuel Deall, 70, remembers how he first voted in Atlanta in 1965, surrounded by National Guard soldiers, in a volcanic environment that “could erupt at any time. “. He hasn’t stopped doing it even once in his life since then, but many others have done: “Any data change that you don’t notify creates a problem for you, a lot of people don’t. computer, and it costs them more, or they don’t have a polling station nearby and you have mobility problems, or you have very few free hours to vote… If you want a good democracy, what you are doing is facilitating it all ”.

Organizations such as the historic Union for the Defense of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the United States (Aclu) or the NAACP (the great association for the defense of blacks), consider that the package of measures translates into a “vote suppression” for partisan purposes and took the case to court.

The grassroots battle is national, and Democrats have responded with a common law proposal proposing a common law that, on the contrary, seeks to extend and protect minimum access to suffrage across the country. Also indicates blue, like progressive Washington, reacts with state regulations that seek to broaden the vote of ex-convicts. For Cliff Albright, executive director of Black Voters Matter, “You literally have to go back to the days of post-Civil War reconstruction to see a law of restrictive tendencies like this, that’s how bad this attempt to suppress the vote is historic. “

The brawl grew in tension over time. President Joe Biden has come to associate the legislation with “Jim Crow,” referring to the rules that institutionalized racial segregation in the late 1800s. Major League Baseball (MLB) withdrew the 91st All-Star Atlanta Game. For the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, the organization is committing “economic blackmail”. But if the final effect of these changes remains to be seen at the ballot box, the limitations that certain states have promoted in recent years in terms of personal identifications have been filled by a greater mobilization effort on the part of the Democrats. The 2020 turnout broke a 120-year record. Among Democrats and Republicans.

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