AME Church, Others Plan April 7 Boycott Over New GA Voting Law

ATLANTA, GA — Local faith leaders and community stakeholders, including African Methodist Episcopal Church, announced a national boycott of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, Delta and Home Depot this week the passage of Georgia's new voting law.

AME Bishop Reginald T. Jackson announced the boycott April 1, with the boycott taking effect April 7. Jackson and other civil rights activists have said the state's new law "seeks to suppress the votes of Black and brown people," and claim Georgia's corporations did not levy their power enough to speak out against the new law, also known as Senate Bill 202.

“This legislation poses a threat to our democracy,” Jackson said. “It not only seeks to suppress our votes, it is racist and seeks to turn back the clock to the era of Jim Crow.”

Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 202 into law on the evening of March 25, a sweeping Republican-sponsored bill that implemented new provisions on absentee voting and greater legislative control on how elections are run.

The passage of the new law has since resulted in three federal lawsuits challenging its constitutionality — AME Church is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits — Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star Game out of Cobb County and now a national boycott of Georgia-based companies.

Delta, Coca-Cola and Home Depot officials, as well as others, all spoke out against SB 202 last week, some in their strongest statements yet. But the statements came too late — they spoke out about a week after the bill was already made law.

"I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta's values," Bastian said in the internal letter released last Wednesday that made its way into public viewing. "The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie."

SEE ALSO:

• SPLC, NAACP, ACLU Sue Georgia Over New Elections Laws
• Corporations Chime In On GA Election Law After The Fact
• Activists Call On GA Corporations To Condemn Voting Bills
• Kemp Says MLB Caved To Fear In Moving All-Star Game From Atlanta

Black churches and others in the faith community played a major role in voting efforts across Georgia last year, as well as voter rights organizations. Some churches provided transportation to polling locations, and provided water and snacks to voters waiting in line.

One of the provisions in Georgia's new voting law adds rules on where volunteers can pass out food and/or drinks to voters in line. Those volunteers can still pass out refreshments, but can only do so if they are outside 150 feet of a polling place or 25 feet from the end of the voter line, per the new law.

Voting rights activists say this provision disproportionately affects voters of color, who they say are often subject to long voting lines.

"We all witnessed the hours-long lines to vote in Georgia during this last election cycle, from the primary onwards, and voters of color disproportionately bear the burden of waiting in these long lines," said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "But instead of celebrating, encouraging and making it easier for organizations like AME Church to affirm the dignity of Black and brown voters, and to provide refreshments and encouragement for voters subjected to these lines to stay in line and have a voice in these elections, Georgia is criminalizing these efforts."

The same boundary rules have already applied to those who try to campaign to voters in line, but the General Assembly added people passing out refreshments to the rule this year.

"It's not like you can't do those things," Kemp said on Fox & Friends last week. "We're just trying to keep voters from being harassed and electioneered while they're standing in line, preparing to vote. We've had laws like that and most states have around the country for years.”

The new law also replaces signature matching on absentee ballots, and instead requires a driver's license ID or state ID number. If a voter can't provide either of those, another acceptable form of voter ID is required.

Additionally, the law shortens the length of time to both request and complete an absentee ballot application; moves drop box locations to be inside government buildings and therefore limiting hours the public can access them; adds mandatory Saturday voting; makes Sunday voting optional; and shortens the required polling hours from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. to 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Counties can still opt to keep polling locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. if they wish.

SEE ALSO: Election Law Restricts Absentee Voting, Weakens Sec. of State

It also removes the Secretary of State as the chair of the State Election Board and instead makes the role a non-voting, ex-officio member of the board. The new chair would be nonpartisan, but appointed by the state House and Senate.

While activists say the new law suppresses all voters, but particularly voters of color, Kemp and other Republican legislators say the law actually expands voting access in Georgia — it just changed some of the parameters.

“I think when people get educated on the bill and are not subjected to people misleading them on the other side about what this bill actually does, I think they’ll have good understanding of why the General Assembly took the actions that they did,” Kemp said to WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate, last week.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms cautioned against boycotts, as she said it ultimately hurts the Georgians who work for these companies. Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams said in a USA Today opinion piece last week that it may be too early for a boycott as well.

“I am deeply concerned about the boycott and potentially, the unintended consequences that it could have on everyday working people,” Bottoms said last Thursday afternoon. “At the end of the day, when you boycott these companies, you’re boycotting jobs for our community. Delta is one of our largest employers in the state, and many of those people live right here in Atlanta.”