Bishop Reginald Thomas Jackson on Monday issued a scathing reprimand over a comprehensive bill passed by Georgia’s Republicans last week, calling it ‘another attempt to suppress the black vote’ after the former red state turned blue. during the presidential election and the Senate last month. effluent.
Jackson, chairman of the sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which includes more than 500 churches in Peach State, condemned HB 531 during a hearing hosted by the voting group Fair Fight Action on Monday.
Among a number of stipulations listed in the 48-page measure is a section that must vote in advance for the election and the end of the election to start the election day ‘immediately before’ on the fourth Monday and the Friday before it. end. The vote will be held on weekdays from 9 to 5 and the same hour on the second Saturday before a pre-election or election.
However, provinces and municipalities were banned from voting in advance on Sundays, a day that black churches in the state used earlier to increase voter turnout among congregations with “Souls to the Polls” efforts.
“The Black Church has always been trying to get our people to vote,” Jackson said. “That is why we have used ‘Souls to the Polls’ as a way to get the elderly and other members of our congregations to vote, to gather for worship and after the worship to go to the polls.”
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 directing the arguments put forward by Republican lawmakers over the past few weeks on the new election bills for democratic victories to increase security.
“They say they are submitting this legislation because the citizens of Georgia do not have confidence in the election, that there is suspicion, that there was a lot of fraud in the vote,” he said, referring to the November presidential race.
“There were three versions. There was an audit. There was court case after court case. All three of the narratives did not change the outcome. The audit did not change the outcome. “Every lawsuit was dismissed because they were without merit and had no evidence of fraud,” Jackson said.
“If the Republicans had won, not a single bill on the vote would have been tabled in this legislature,” he added.
Another bill passed by a Senate subcommittee in a party vote last week sought to stop the absence of absentees in the state, after the absence was absent in November.
In addition to limiting the days residents can vote early in the state, HB 531 will also further limit when a voter will be able to request a ballot for absentees and when election officials can send it to voters, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB).
Former President Trump
Former Florida Attorney General Donald Trump arrested after being arrested directly from the U.S. Capitol during the offense, the FBI says Schumer says he is working to get votes for Biden’s OMB choice, Pence’s invitation to CPAC at to live, to confirm: report MORE and other Republicans have been widely criticized over the past few months for reiterating unfounded conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud following its November defeat.
“It was the same Republicans who passed these laws a few years ago that provided for the absence of votes, that provided for early voting, that provided for ballot boxes,” Jackson said. “These very Republicans, when it worked for them, there was nothing wrong with them. But now that blacks and people of color are using these processes to vote, they are now saying we need to stop it.”
Hillary Holley, a spokeswoman for Fair Fight Action, called the Republican measure a ‘massive law-breaking bill’ during the organization’s hearing on the legislation on Monday, saying ‘they left voting rights organizations 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, press members and Georgia lawmakers can really have the opportunity to understand what is in this bill.”
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and the Southern Poverty Law Center also testified in the special committee of Georgia House of Representatives on Election Integrity, where HB 531 was introduced, according to GPB, to “express opposition as strongly as possible.” terms ”to the criterion.
The bill, the groups in the testimony said, is’ ready to create unnecessary barriers and burdens on voters that have an exorbitant impact on racial minorities, low incomes, the elderly, rural, disabled and / or student voters, rather than ways promoted to expand political participation. on the heels of ever-increasing participation by Georgians in elections. ”
The criterion, they noted, also comes ‘eloquently’ in the wake of a historic election in which Black Georgians make up 30.3% of absent voters, and a total of 36.7% of voters by post Georgians was of color; where more than 17% of absent voters were under thirty-five years old. ”
In addition to the provision of the bill that could limit the days of Georgia residents to vote early, the groups are also focused on another provision that proposes the requirement of photo identification for the absence of votes – a practice that they say had a “diverse impact” on “groups that have historically been rejected.”
“If accepted, the prospect of these provisions, coupled with the requirement for photo ID, would be an unbearable and discriminatory obstacle to access to the ballot box for voters in Georgia, especially for colored voters,” the groups added.