A dispute over voting laws in Georgia and Colorado reached the White House Information Hall Tuesday after Major League Baseball announced a new location for the All-Star Game.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about the decision to move the Midsummer Classic from Atlanta to Denver as a protest against the new voting laws in Georgia that will make it much harder for voters to vote.
“Is the White House worried that Major League Baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are much like Georgia’s?” Asked Fox Doocy, reporter for Fox News.
“Well, let me just refute the first point you made,” Psaki said before noting that on election day Colorado allows registration and can offer every eligible resident a vote.
“I think it’s important to remember the context here,” Psaki added. Georgia’s legislation is built on a lie. There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election; Georgia’s top Republican election officials have repeatedly acknowledged this in interviews. Let me finally add one more thing: this is Major League Baseball to determine where they hold their All-Star Game. ”
As MLB announced it was moving its All-Star Game to Denver in response to a series of new voting laws in Georgia passed by Republicans after losses during the presidential election and two U.S. Senate games, conservatives argued that Colorado already has voting laws. on the books similar to the peach state.
Voting rights groups say the new restrictions in Georgia will affect the Black community excessively, which has helped the power of the Democrats’ recent election success in the state. Georgia, who nailed Joe Biden in November, was one of the focal points in former President Donald Trump’s unfounded accusation that the presidential election was stolen from him.
Trump congratulated Georgians in a statement on their new laws, saying: “They have learned from the travesty of the 2020 presidential election, which can never be allowed again. Sorry these changes could not be made earlier. ”
After MLB announced that Denver would host the All-Star Game, Sen. Tim Scott, RS.C., tweeted: “Georgia: Voter ID, 17 days of early voting. Colorado: voter ID, 15 days of early voting. Atlanta is 51% black. Denver is 9.2% black. The @MLB moves the #MLBAllStarGame out of ATL which has more daylight than CO? The Wokes are busy again, people. ‘
The limited early voting period in Colorado does not make sense in practice, as most of the state – 94 percent by 2020 – votes by mail or by drop box. The state does need an identity card when registering to vote for the first time, and for those who vote in person. But in Colorado, voters can use more than a dozen types of IDs, such as student IDs or Medicare and Medicaid cards. If they do not have proof of identity, they can vote for the time being, and officials can later verify their identity.
Georgia law, on the other hand, requires a photo ID to vote in person, as well as a form of identification to vote by mail.
The voting-by-mail systems also differ greatly in both states: in Colorado, every eligible voter receives a ballot by mail, as opposed to Georgia where a voter must request it, and there are far more mailboxes in Colorado than in Georgia.
Under the new Peach State laws, a voter must provide a driver’s license number, a copy of a state identification card or a social security number each time. Colorado does not require a postal vote ID after initial registration. The states also differ on voter registration, which is offered the same day in Colorado but is subject to a deadline for early October in Georgia.
The Colorado system has led to a high turnout (the second best among any state in the 2020 election), and the Centennial State is considered one of the safest states to vote. While Colorado has been trending blue for the past few years, former Republican Senator Cory Gardner won in 2014, shortly after the new postal laws were enacted.
In addition to restricting the windows for by mail, increasing the restriction of voter ID and restricting the placement of the fall box, the Georgian Electoral Integrity Act of 2021, passed on March 25 by GOP government Brian Kemp , signed, also the officials at state level the power to take over provincial election councils and criminalize the distribution of food and drink in voting lines.
Last week, MLB announced it was going to pick up the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park summer game, which is located outside the city in suburban Cobb County. The league had a setback from Republican politicians, with the urgency of boycotts and the Texas government, Greg Abbott, not wanting to throw first place at the Texas Rangers’ home team.
However, there was high opposition to Republican Republic against parts of the bill in Georgia.
“There were some things earlier in the process that I did not like, and I talked really hard about them,” Georgian Lieutenant General Geoff Duncan told Yahoo News last month. ‘I think an important part of this is about the perpetuation of the mantra to make voting rights in Georgia easier and harder to cheat.
“I did not think it made sense for us to return a vote-free vote without disgust,” Duncan said. ‘I felt that the early versions of the bill also restricted Sunday voting. I did not think it was really a good position to take.
‘I [also] did not think it necessarily makes sense [to not allow] water and food in line, ”he added. “I think there were just better ways to do it.”
____
Read more from Yahoo News: