Delta CEO Blasts Georgia Election Law, Calls It 'Unacceptable'

ATLANTA — Delta CEO Ed Bastian penned a letter on Wednesday condemning the new Georgia law adding limits to voting access.

While acknowledging that changes to the original state house and senate bills eliminated what Bastian considered some of the “most egregious measures,” he said the end product Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last week still did not pass muster.

“I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values,” Bastian said in the letter released internally Wednesday morning to Delta employees and obtained and tweeted by Reuters transportation reporter David Shepardson.

Both chambers pushed through respective versions of the bill last week, and Kemp signed the 95-page bill within two hours of its passage, precluding broad scrutiny of the new law.

Bastian said he formed his opinion after having an opportunity to view the legislation.

“After having time to fully understand all that is in the bill, coupled with discussions with leaders and employees in the Black community, it’s evident that the bill includes provisions that will make it harder for many underrepresented voters, particularly Black voters, to exercise their constitutional right to elect their representative. That is wrong.”

The law requires state IDs for absentee ballots, limits the time voters have to request and send in absentee ballots and reduces public access to ballot drop boxes to only when the government buildings housing them are open. The law also gives a state election board authority to replace county election officials deemed ineffective or troublesome.

Further, he said the bill’s inception was the result of the false claims that the November election went to President Joe Biden as a result of widespread fraud.

“The entire rationale for the bill was based on a lie,” Bastian said. “Unfortunately, that excuse is being used in states across the nation that are attempting to pass similar legislation to restrict voting.”

In the runup to the passage of Senate Bill 202 last week by both houses of the Georgia General Assembly and Kemp’s subsequent signage, voter advocates in Atlanta challenged Georgia’s corporate community to speak out against the legislation.

In particular, protesters demanded that corporate donors like Delta, Coca-Cola, Home Depot and UPS, who donated millions in the last two years to sponsors of House Bill 531 and Senate Bill 224 — the original bills — pull their political funding.

While Delta initially responded to activists’ demands calling for “an election system that promotes broad voter participation, equal access to the polls, and fair, secure elections processes are critical to voter confidence and creates an environment that ensures everyone's vote is counted,” legislators only eliminated proposed prohibitions on so-called “souls to the polls” Sunday voting.

As Bastian mentioned, the law is the first in a long line of bills across the state designed to roll back election access. According to the New York Times, Heritage Action, the political wing of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, created guidelines for “best practices” that Georgia legislators crafting the law could follow.

Wednesday morning, Heritage Action released information about the law purporting to dispel “misconceptions, half-truths and flat-out lies” spread by critics of the law.

Bastian dedicated himself and Delta to doing more to promote voter rights.

“I commit to you that as we move forward, Delta will continue to do everything in our power to hear and protect your voice and your rights, both in Georgia and nationwide,” he said.