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Georgia State Representative Park Cannon, who was arrested last week after trying to gain access to the office where Gov. Brian Kemp was signing a controversial voting restrictions bill, said Thursday his actions were justified.
“I felt like time was passing in slow motion,” Cannon said, fighting back tears as he described the details of the incident. “My experience has been painful, both physically and emotionally, but today I stand before you to say as horrific as that experience was … I believe the governor who enacted the most comprehensive law of suppression of voters nationwide is a far more serious crime. “
It was the first time Cannon had spoken publicly about the incident since his arrest. Video of her knocking on the door of Kemp’s office before being forcibly evicted by police has gone viral on social media, drawing more attention to the new voting restrictions.
Flanked by a handful of supporters and fellow Democratic lawmakers at the base of a mural of civil rights icon John Lewis in Atlanta, Cannon described the law as a “voter suppression bill” and called declared that with “a stroke of the pen” Kemp “erased decades of sacrifice, untold hours of work, marches, prayers, tears and … minimized the deaths of thousands who paid the ultimate price to vote.
The Electoral Integrity Act of 2021, or Senate Bill 202, imposes new voter identification requirements for mail ballots, limits the number of drop boxes statewide, and gives state-level officials the power to take over county electoral councils, potentially allowing GOP officials to decide the vote count in Democratic strongholds.
The bill, which was signed into law by Kemp just over an hour after it was passed by the General Assembly, also criminalizes handing out food or drink to voters who stand in line.
Republicans say the stricter requirements of the law will ensure future Georgia elections will be safer, but Democrats say it was designed to suppress voting for seniors and blacks, and was written in direct response to the GOP’s losses in the 2020 presidential election in the state as well. like two contests that gave Democrats control of the US Senate. A record 5 million Georgians voted in the last electoral cycle.
Georgia-based Fortune 500 companies and others nationally headquartered including Delta, Home Depot and Coca Cola have condemned Georgia’s new election law.
In a Wednesday memo to company employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said it was “evident that the bill includes provisions that will make it harder for many under-represented voters, especially black voters, exercising their constitutional right to elect their representatives. It’s wrong.”
Cannon now faces two felony charges since last week’s arrest, including obstructing and preventing or disrupting a general assembly session, according to the Department of Public Security’s website. Fulton County.
She told reporters on Thursday that she also faced eight years in prison for “unfounded charges”.
Park’s attorneys say the Democratic lawmaker is now raising money for his legal defense on a GoFundMe page titled “I Stand With Park.”
The fund’s initial goal is set at $ 1 million and the page states that “any remaining funds will be used to protect voting rights.”
Cover thumbnail illustration: Yahoo! News; Photos: Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Ben Gray / AP Photo
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