Georgia's Governor Brian Kemp signed into law new voter restriction laws this week and the immediate backlash started with a Georgia State Legislator named Park Cannon being arrested in the Georgia Capital (her workplace) as she knocked on the door of the room where Brian Kemp was signing this bill into law.
The bill signed quickly after being passed by the Georgia bicameral bodies and away from cameras was only seen through lens of a picture taken of Kemp and a few other likely Georgia Republicans while he signs the bill into law. In what is likely a ironic twist, the painting in the picture behind the Governor is of an old slave plantation in Georgia. You wonder why detractors call these anti-voting laws "The New Jim Crow" or "Jim Crow 2.0".
Among some of the egregious parts of the bill that were proposed would be the shortening of runoff election cycles from nine weeks to four, limiting voting drop boxes, preventing the distribution of water to voters in line waiting to cast ballots and the ability of Georgia politicians to have unlimited challenges to voter registration and eligibility.
Advocates say these measure in the Georgia bill are designed to put a dent in minority voters who went to the polls in droves in the November 2020 election in the state which helped Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump. The increasing voting power of African-Americans and other minorities in the state is said to be what this bill targets. Placing more restrictions and more obstacles is what has been used to keep Blacks from the polls for over a hundred years and activists like former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams say that this bill is "reviving Georgia's dark past of racist voting laws".
One thing is sure, this battle between Brian Kemp and Georgia Republicans and Black and minority voters in Georgia will not go away anytime soon and with Stacey Abrams' history of rallying voters for the 2020 Presidential Election who knows what will happen when it's time for Georgians to vote for Governor in 2022.
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