SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A woman casts her vote during a March 1, 2016 primary election. (Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)
'Reprehensible Power Grab': Outrage as Georgia House Passes GOP Bill Restricting Voting Rights
"Georgia Republicans didn't like the results of the 2020 election so they decided they would try to dictate who they will let vote and who they won't let vote."
Mar 01, 2021
Civil and voting rights organizations on Tuesday joined Democratic lawmakers in condemning Republican legislators in Georgia after the state House of Representatives approved a bill imposing new restrictions on voting that one group said "harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow."
Republican legislators have deliberately targeted Black and brown Georgians with a disgraceful string of bills that harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow in Georgia."
--Aunna Dennis, Common Cause
On Monday, the state House voted 97-22, largely along party lines, to pass H.B. 531, which requires more identification for absentee voting, limits the number of ballot drop boxes, and curtails weekend early voting days. The measure now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate, where a committee voted Monday to end no-excuse absentee voting.
Speaking of her Republican colleagues, state Rep. Kimberly Alexander (D-#66) said after the House vote that GOP lawmakers "are trying to change the rules of the election here in Georgia, rules that you wrote, because you were handed defeat."
"You know that your only chance of winning future elections is to prevent Georgians from having their votes counted and their voices heard," Alexander told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alexander's remarks were echoed by Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director at the advocacy group All Voting is Local, who said in a statement that "these new bills are a reprehensible power grab that were rushed through committee and never intended to solve the real issues that plagued our elections like long lines, machine malfunctions, and staffing scarcities."
"Georgia voters turned out in November and January, making their voices heard through ballot drop boxes, expanded absentee voting, and increased early voting hours," added Khondoker. "That increased access empowered voters to change Georgia's political landscape, and now, the legislature is trying to ensure it never happens again. Georgians must have the freedom to vote in the way that works best for them."
Aunna Dennis, executive director at the progressive watchdog group Common Cause - Georgia , said in a statement that "Georgia Republicans didn't like the results of the 2020 election so they decided they would try to dictate who they will let vote and who they won't let vote." Dennis continued:
Republican legislators have deliberately targeted Black and brown Georgians with a disgraceful string of bills that harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow in Georgia. If anyone has any doubts whatsoever about the racial targeting of this proposed legislation they need look no further than its ban on weekend early voting which will end Souls to the Polls, the longstanding tradition of Black congregations in Georgia going to vote after Sunday services...
The process of jamming these voter suppression bills through the Georgia House and Senate has been a travesty. Changes were being introduced right through the weekend and the opportunity for public input was woefully insufficient. And remarkably, the whole process was based on a lie that GOP legislators themselves perpetuated. They lied to their supporters about the result of the election and then used the doubts sown by those lies as justification for this strongarm attempt to install minority rule by keeping thousands of Georgians from voting.
Georgia's U.S. senators--both Democrats--weighed in on the bills, with Raphael Warnock calling them "blatant voter suppression" and Jon Ossoff noting that H.B. 531's passage came the same day the Senate unanimously passed his resolution honoring the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil and voting rights icon.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, tweeted that the Lewis resolution's passage "won't, but it should, shame those so hell-bent on passing voter suppression bills in Georgia right now."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
us senategeorgiacivil rightsnaacpjon ossoffjohn lewiscommon causevoting rightselection 2020raphael warnockracism
Civil and voting rights organizations on Tuesday joined Democratic lawmakers in condemning Republican legislators in Georgia after the state House of Representatives approved a bill imposing new restrictions on voting that one group said "harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow."
Republican legislators have deliberately targeted Black and brown Georgians with a disgraceful string of bills that harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow in Georgia."
--Aunna Dennis, Common Cause
On Monday, the state House voted 97-22, largely along party lines, to pass H.B. 531, which requires more identification for absentee voting, limits the number of ballot drop boxes, and curtails weekend early voting days. The measure now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate, where a committee voted Monday to end no-excuse absentee voting.
Speaking of her Republican colleagues, state Rep. Kimberly Alexander (D-#66) said after the House vote that GOP lawmakers "are trying to change the rules of the election here in Georgia, rules that you wrote, because you were handed defeat."
"You know that your only chance of winning future elections is to prevent Georgians from having their votes counted and their voices heard," Alexander told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alexander's remarks were echoed by Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director at the advocacy group All Voting is Local, who said in a statement that "these new bills are a reprehensible power grab that were rushed through committee and never intended to solve the real issues that plagued our elections like long lines, machine malfunctions, and staffing scarcities."
"Georgia voters turned out in November and January, making their voices heard through ballot drop boxes, expanded absentee voting, and increased early voting hours," added Khondoker. "That increased access empowered voters to change Georgia's political landscape, and now, the legislature is trying to ensure it never happens again. Georgians must have the freedom to vote in the way that works best for them."
Aunna Dennis, executive director at the progressive watchdog group Common Cause - Georgia , said in a statement that "Georgia Republicans didn't like the results of the 2020 election so they decided they would try to dictate who they will let vote and who they won't let vote." Dennis continued:
Republican legislators have deliberately targeted Black and brown Georgians with a disgraceful string of bills that harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow in Georgia. If anyone has any doubts whatsoever about the racial targeting of this proposed legislation they need look no further than its ban on weekend early voting which will end Souls to the Polls, the longstanding tradition of Black congregations in Georgia going to vote after Sunday services...
The process of jamming these voter suppression bills through the Georgia House and Senate has been a travesty. Changes were being introduced right through the weekend and the opportunity for public input was woefully insufficient. And remarkably, the whole process was based on a lie that GOP legislators themselves perpetuated. They lied to their supporters about the result of the election and then used the doubts sown by those lies as justification for this strongarm attempt to install minority rule by keeping thousands of Georgians from voting.
Georgia's U.S. senators--both Democrats--weighed in on the bills, with Raphael Warnock calling them "blatant voter suppression" and Jon Ossoff noting that H.B. 531's passage came the same day the Senate unanimously passed his resolution honoring the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil and voting rights icon.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, tweeted that the Lewis resolution's passage "won't, but it should, shame those so hell-bent on passing voter suppression bills in Georgia right now."
Civil and voting rights organizations on Tuesday joined Democratic lawmakers in condemning Republican legislators in Georgia after the state House of Representatives approved a bill imposing new restrictions on voting that one group said "harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow."
Republican legislators have deliberately targeted Black and brown Georgians with a disgraceful string of bills that harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow in Georgia."
--Aunna Dennis, Common Cause
On Monday, the state House voted 97-22, largely along party lines, to pass H.B. 531, which requires more identification for absentee voting, limits the number of ballot drop boxes, and curtails weekend early voting days. The measure now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate, where a committee voted Monday to end no-excuse absentee voting.
Speaking of her Republican colleagues, state Rep. Kimberly Alexander (D-#66) said after the House vote that GOP lawmakers "are trying to change the rules of the election here in Georgia, rules that you wrote, because you were handed defeat."
"You know that your only chance of winning future elections is to prevent Georgians from having their votes counted and their voices heard," Alexander told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alexander's remarks were echoed by Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director at the advocacy group All Voting is Local, who said in a statement that "these new bills are a reprehensible power grab that were rushed through committee and never intended to solve the real issues that plagued our elections like long lines, machine malfunctions, and staffing scarcities."
"Georgia voters turned out in November and January, making their voices heard through ballot drop boxes, expanded absentee voting, and increased early voting hours," added Khondoker. "That increased access empowered voters to change Georgia's political landscape, and now, the legislature is trying to ensure it never happens again. Georgians must have the freedom to vote in the way that works best for them."
Aunna Dennis, executive director at the progressive watchdog group Common Cause - Georgia , said in a statement that "Georgia Republicans didn't like the results of the 2020 election so they decided they would try to dictate who they will let vote and who they won't let vote." Dennis continued:
Republican legislators have deliberately targeted Black and brown Georgians with a disgraceful string of bills that harken back to the dark days of Jim Crow in Georgia. If anyone has any doubts whatsoever about the racial targeting of this proposed legislation they need look no further than its ban on weekend early voting which will end Souls to the Polls, the longstanding tradition of Black congregations in Georgia going to vote after Sunday services...
The process of jamming these voter suppression bills through the Georgia House and Senate has been a travesty. Changes were being introduced right through the weekend and the opportunity for public input was woefully insufficient. And remarkably, the whole process was based on a lie that GOP legislators themselves perpetuated. They lied to their supporters about the result of the election and then used the doubts sown by those lies as justification for this strongarm attempt to install minority rule by keeping thousands of Georgians from voting.
Georgia's U.S. senators--both Democrats--weighed in on the bills, with Raphael Warnock calling them "blatant voter suppression" and Jon Ossoff noting that H.B. 531's passage came the same day the Senate unanimously passed his resolution honoring the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil and voting rights icon.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, tweeted that the Lewis resolution's passage "won't, but it should, shame those so hell-bent on passing voter suppression bills in Georgia right now."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.