Georgian bishop says GOP state election bill is ‘attempt to suppress black voting’

Bishop Reginald Thomas Jackson on Monday issued a fiery rebuke of a sweeping election-related bill tabled by Republicans in Georgia last week, which he called a “new attempt to suppress the black vote” after that the formerly red state turned blue in last month’s presidential and Senate elections. runoff.

Jackson, presiding prelate of the Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which includes more than 500 churches in Peach State, condemned HB 531 in a hearing organized by the voting rights group Fair Fight Action Monday.

Among a number of provisions listed in the 48-page measure, there is a section that would require advance voting for primaries, elections and the second round to begin on the fourth Monday “immediately before” polling day and end. ends the previous Friday. Voting would take place weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and at the same times on the second Saturday before a primary or election.

However, counties and municipalities would not be allowed to hold an advance poll on Sunday, a day that black churches across the state have previously used to increase voter turnout among worshipers with “Souls to” efforts. the Polls ”.

“The Black Church has always been committed to trying to get our people to vote,” Jackson said. “So we used ‘Souls to the Polls’ as one way in particular to get our elders and other members of our congregations to vote, to come together for worship and after worship to go to the polls to vote.”

Jackson said the new bill “is nothing more than another attempt to suppress the black vote.”

“Let’s be honest: this bill is racist,” he continued, before tackling arguments Republican lawmakers have made in recent weeks by claiming that the new election bills after the Democratic victories aim to increase security.

“They say they are presenting this bill because Georgian citizens do not trust the election, there are suspicions, that there was a lot of fraud in the vote,” a- he said, referring to the November presidential race.

“There have been three recounts. There was an audit. There was trial after trial. The three recounts did not change the result. The audit did not change the result. All of the court cases were dismissed because they were without merit and had no evidence of fraud, ”Jackson said.

“If the Republicans had won, not a single voting bill would have been introduced in this legislative session,” he added.

Another bill that was passed by a state Senate subcommittee in an online party vote last week sought to stop absentee voting without excuse in the state after registering a turnout. record of absentees in November.

In addition to limiting the days when residents can vote early in the state, HB 531 would also further limit when a voter can request a postal vote and when election officials can send them to voters, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting ( GPB).

Former President TrumpDonald Trump Former Florida officer arrested after live broadcast from inside the U.S. Capitol during breach, FBI says Schumer says he’s working to find votes to confirm OMB’s choice of Biden, Pence declined invitation to attend CPAC: PLUS reports and other Republicans have drawn widespread criticism in recent months for repeating unfounded conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud after his defeat in November.

“These are the same Republicans who passed these laws a few years ago that provided for postal voting, which provided for early voting, which provided for ballot boxes,” Jackson said. “Those same Republicans, when it worked for them, there was nothing wrong with them. But now that black people and people of color are using these processes to vote, that’s why now they’re saying we have to. Stop.”

Hillary Holley, spokesperson for Fair Fight Action, called the Republicans’ measure a “voter suppression bill” during the organization’s hearing on the legislation on Monday and said: “They left the organizations franchise and election officials on both sides of the aisle with only a few hours to review. “

Holley added that this is part of the reason why Fair Fight Action “decided to hold daily hearings so that members of the public, members of the press and Georgian lawmakers can truly have the opportunity to understand what is in there. this law project”.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and the Southern Poverty Law Center also filed testimony before the Georgia House of Representatives Special Committee on Electoral Integrity, where HB 531 was introduced, according to GPB, on Friday for express its opposition “to the greatest extent possible. terms ”to measure.

The bill, the groups said in testimony, is “on the verge of creating unnecessary barriers and burdens on voters that disproportionately impact racial minority, low-income, elderly, rural, disabled voters. and / or students – rather than promoting ways to broaden political participation in the wake of the ever-increasing participation of Georgians in elections.

The move, they noted, also comes “revealingly” “following a landmark election in which black Georgians made up 30.3% of absent voters, and a total of 36.7% of voters. by mail were Georgians of color; where more than 17% of absent voters were under the age of thirty-five. ”

In addition to opposing the bill’s provision limiting the days on which Georgian residents can vote early, the groups are also focusing on another provision proposing photo identification requirements for absentee voting – a practice that ‘they note has had a “disparate impact” on “historically disenfranchised groups.”

“If adopted, the prospect of these provisions, combined with the requirement of a photo ID, constitutes an intolerable and discriminatory barrier to access to the ballot boxes for Georgian voters, especially voters in Georgia. color, ”the groups added.