Rights groups urge companies to fight Georgia voting curbs
Voting rights groups are calling on companies such as Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines to oppose efforts by Republican lawmakers in Georgia to enact sweeping new restrictions on voting access in the battleground state.
The organizations, including Black Voters Matter, the New Georgia Project and the Georgia NAACP, launched a campaign this week asking the corporations to take a stand against legislation they say aims to curb turnout from Democratic-leaning Black voters, who were crucial to helping elect Democrat President Joe Biden in the November election and two Democratic senators in a January run-off.
A once unthinkable scenario in the traditionally red state.
Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group focused on increasing Black Americans' voting access said: "Some of these companies have made beautiful statements for Black Lives Matter. Yet here, in the moment where it matters most, they have been silent."
Republicans in Georgia and across the country are using former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud to back state-level voting changes they say are needed to restore election integrity.
A bill passed by the Republican-controlled Georgia House on Monday would restrict ballot drop boxes, tighten absentee voting requirements and limit early voting on Sundays, curtailing traditional "Souls to the Polls" voter turnout programs in Black churches.
Georgia will likely one of the biggest battlegrounds in the 2022 elections with a U.S. Senate seat and the governor's office on the ballot.
