President Joe Biden called radical election law Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an “atrocity” this week and said the Justice Department is “looking at” the measure.
The new law includes provisions to require voter identification for absentee ballot boxes, limit the use of ballot boxes, give state officials more power over elections, and make it a crime to offer voters food and water while they wait to at the tail.
Critics argue that the law disproportionately affects black voters, who were critical of recent Democratic victories. Biden narrowly won the state in the 2020 election and Georgia sent two Democrats to the Senate after the January by-elections.
Asked by reporters on Friday how the White House could respond to the bill, Biden said “now we’re working on it.”
“We don’t know exactly what we can do right now. The Justice Department is also looking,” Biden said.
He told reporters the bill was an “atrocity.”
“It has nothing to do with justice, it has nothing to do with decency. They passed the law saying that water cannot be provided to people queuing while waiting to vote? You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing more that you punish, designed to prevent people from voting. Can’t you provide water to people about to vote? Give me a break, “he said.
In a statement released Friday earlier, the president urged Congress to pass voting rights legislation that would counter Georgia law and other bills proposed by Republican state legislatures across the country that would make voting difficult.
“This law, like so many others persecuted by Republicans in state houses across the country, is a flagrant attack on the Constitution and good conscience,” Biden said. He noted that longer lines at the polls disproportionately affected black voters in metropolitan areas, as Republican officials have reduced the number of polling stations in their neighborhoods.
“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It has to end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act. I urge Congress once again to pass the People Act and the Voting Rights Advancement Act “John Lewis to make it easier for everyone. Eligible Americans gain access to the polls and prevent attacks on the sacred right to vote,” Biden continued.
The House has recently passed the People’s Act, a bill that addresses election and election and campaign finance reform. However, it is it is unlikely to happen in the Senate, where most Republicans have voiced opposition to the bill. Democrats only have a 50-seat majority in the Senate and most legislation requires 60 votes to advance.
Even if Democrats removed the filibuster, which would lower the threshold to a simple majority, some Democrats have also expressed concern about the bill. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said this week that he believed the bill should be cut and that Democrats and Republicans should try to pass voting rights legislation on a bipartisan basis. Manchin also opposes ending the filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday in a letter to fellow Democrats that the Senate Judiciary Committee would soon pass John Lewis’s Bill of Rights Act, which would reinstate the provisions of the Bill of Rights Act. 1965 vote overthrown by the Supreme Court. Like the People’s Act, it is unlikely to receive the necessary support from 60 senators.
Republicans, meanwhile, argue that Georgia’s bill does not mean suppressing voters. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said “the cries of ‘suppression of voters’ from those in the left ring are empty.” Kemp said he made the election safer.
“There is nothing about ‘Jim Crow’ that requires a photo or ID issued by the state to vote by no vote. All Georgia voters already have to do so when they vote in person,” he said. Kemp on Friday.