Restrictive GA Election Bills: Lawmakers' Donors Face Protest

ATLANTA — The backlash from Georgia legislation proposing hefty restrictions to voting laws is calling some of the state’s corporate giants on the carpet.

The Atlanta news organization Popular Information reported Wednesday that companies including Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, Delta, Southern Company, UPS, Home Depot and more donated millions of dollars since 2018 to Georgia General Assembly members promoting House Bill 531 and Senate Bill 241, which each propose a massive rollback of voter access.

The Republican-sponsored bills would, among other things, limit early voting and require an ID for absentee voting — measures that Democrats and voting rights groups say would disproportionately affect people of color.

After also listing nearly two dozen Georgia-based or state-heavy companies that contributed nearly $620,000, Popular Information on Thursday morning showed where area activism groups, including Georgia NAACP and Black Voters Matter, placed newspaper ads across the state asking, “Corporate Georgia, will you stand with Georgia voters?”

Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright also tweeted the ad — it was directed to the Georgia Chamber and the Metro Atlanta Chamber, in addition to the other companies — with a reference to Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for immediacy.

Some companies later offered statements in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in response to the initial report, vowing to “work to advance voting rights and access (Coca-Cola)” or backing an “election system that promotes broad voter participation, equal access to the polls, and fair, secure elections processes.”

The Metro Atlanta Chamber said it supports elections “equally accessible” to the voting population, and Home Depot touted elections that were “accessible, fair and secure.”

Read more from Popular Information here.