Just over a year ago, we were told by President Joe Biden that a new voting law passed in Georgia is “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”
Indeed, we were given lists of companies that had released statements speaking out about this allegedly backward piece of legislation.
And eventually, Major League Baseball decided to move its All-Star Game from Atlanta, Georgia, in response to the law — unfairly punishing the local businesses that were expecting an increase in traffic from the event.
So, now that voting has started for the state’s May 24 primary election, how are the charges of “Jim Crow” holding up?
Well, according to Georgia’s Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling, so far, turn out is far exceeding the same point during the 2018 midterm elections.
“We are at 223% of ‘18 turnout as of today in Georgia,” Sterling tweeted Thursday morning.
He added, “292,164 voters have cast their primary ballots. Early in person is at 157,671 GOP, 109,529 Dem [and] 1,821 nonpartisan votes. Mailed Absentee votes cast are 11,044 GOP, 11,749 Dem [and] 350 nonpartisan.”
We are at 223% of ‘18 turnout as of today in Georgia. 292,164 voters have cast their primary ballots. Early in person is at 157,671 GOP, 109,529 Dem & 1,821 nonpartisan votes. Mailed Absentee votes cast are 11,044 GOP, 11,749 Dem & 350 nonpartisan. #gapol
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) May 12, 2022
When one user noted the claim that the new law would suppress votes, Sterling wrote, “The Democrats assertions on this front…as per usual…are not based in reality.”
There is. And the Democrats assertions on this front…as per usual…are not based in reality. Let me find the link.
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) May 12, 2022
The law, which applies to both primary and general elections, essentially bans mobile voting centers, limits the number of drop boxes available for returning ballots — and the hours that they are accessible — and limits the time for voters to request mail-in ballots before an election.
Additionally, it implemented new voter I.D. requirements for requesting a mail-in ballot.
But those measures don’t appear to be holding back voters from casting their ballots.
In January, Vice President Kamala Harris labeled the law an “anti-voter law” and stated that “many voters will likely be kept from voting.”
Meanwhile, last year, Biden called it “un-American, an “atrocity,” “Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” and finally, “a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.”
If the law were really an attack on the Constitution and a renewal of the atrocities of Jim Crow, shouldn’t turn out in the early voting period be way down?
Wouldn’t Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams be going on TV day and night to decry that Black people were being disproportionately impacted by the law and not able to vote?
It’s worth debating the measures of this law and how necessary it was.
But so far, the results from the early voting show that a lot of the criticism was blown way out of proportion.