The White House defended President Joe Biden’s criticism of Georgia’s voting legislation on Tuesday by claiming that high voter turnout and voter suppression may occur together.
In Georgia, a state that President Joe Biden stated had a “Jim Crow” type voting system, there was a record turnout of early voters. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was questioned about this.
She said at her news conference that “high turnout and voting suppression may occur at the same time.”
She emphasized that President Biden was making reference to the many voting regulations that were enacted in the wake of Donald Trump’s untrue assertion that he was the actual victor of the 2020 presidential election and was the victim of voter fraud.
After the election, states with Republican governors adopted harsher voting regulations. Due to the COVID epidemic, several states increased absentee and mail-in voting in 2020.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least seven states passed 10 legislation that made voting more challenging in 2022; of these, five measures are in effect for the midterm elections in five states.
“The president has been quite explicit that based on The Big Lie, there have been a number of anti-voter legislation for certain states that attack Americans’ basic right to vote,” said Jean-Pierre. “This is against our core principles,” you may say.
Of course, she said, “voter suppression and high turnout may happen together.” It’s not necessary for one to occur on its own. It may occur simultaneously.
Invoking the Hatch Act, a federal regulation that prohibits government workers from participating in political action while on the job, she refused to provide any specifics.
Biden referred to Georgia’s recently passed voting legislation as “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and “an outrage” in March 2021.
Georgia was won by Biden in 2020, and Trump is now under investigation there on claims that he and his associates exerted pressure on state authorities to void the presidential election results.
A new legislation in Georgia restricts the use of ballot drop boxes, adds additional voter identification requirements for absentee votes, makes it illegal to approach voters in line and offer them food and drink, and gives state authorities greater control over local elections.
It is in force for the election on November 8th, which will determine who controls Congress. On that day, the state will also elect a new governor.
About 838,000 Georgians had voted as of Sunday, the majority of them in person at early voting locations and the remainder submitting mail-in ballots.
This is over 60% more than the advance voting totals at this stage of the previous midterm election in 2018, which took place.
According to an Associated Press analysis of data gathered by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, more than 10% of Georgia’s registered voters have already cast ballots, a share that trails only Massachusetts and Vermont, where 22% and 16% of voters, respectively, have submitted ballots.
So far, more than a million mail-in votes have been received in California and Florida, respectively. And if additional states open early in-person voting locations or ship ballots to voters, the numbers overall are probably going to increase this week.
To reverse the track we’re on, McDonald added, “we’d have to see turnout plummet before election day,” since “we’re seeing really healthy numbers of individuals who are voting early.”
Republicans have pounced on the Georgia statistics as proof that they should alter the state’s voting laws in 2021.
They want to support Herschel Walker against Raphael Warnock, the Democrat who won a Senate runoff in January 2021, as well as re-elect Gov. Brian Kemp, who barely defeated Stacey Abrams in 2018.
According to Tate Mitchell, a spokesman for the Kemp team, “while Stacey Abrams continues to perpetuate the idea of voting suppression,” the turnout is record-breaking.
While she also applauds the large early attendance, Abrams fights back against that insult.
On Monday, Abrams added, “More people in the ocean does not imply there are less sharks.”
Because voter suppression is about hurdles, it is incorrect to imply that there is a connection between voter participation and suppression, according to Abrams. The blame does not lie with those who built the barriers if they are not entirely effective. The voters who were able to navigate, overwhelm, and get through those obstacles deserve praise.
The increase in early voting coincides with Abrams urging her supporters to cast their votes in person rather than via mail. In her defeat to Kemp four years ago, she strongly advocated mail-in votes, much as Democrats everywhere used to their favor in the upcoming election of 2020.
Georgia’s 2021 voting legislation, however, significantly restricted the use of drop boxes for the 2020 election in metropolitan counties, which lean largely Democratic, and introduced identity requirements to the mail-in voting procedure.
The bill also decreased options to cast a provisional ballot if a voter shows up at the incorrect polling location on Election Day and made it simpler for anybody to contest a specific voter’s eligibility.
Although many of these challenges have been rejected, the Abrams campaign claims that more over 90,000 voters have had their eligibility questioned, largely by conservative organizations.
About 55,000 votes separated Kemp from Abrams four years ago. In the 2020 presidential election, President Biden won Georgia’s electoral votes by over 11,500 votes, while Warnock won the Senate runoff by almost 95,000.
Democrats are urging supporters to cast their ballots as soon as as during the early in-person voting period, which started on October 17 and runs until November 4, four days before election day, in light of the changes to the election laws.
According to the theory, if dedicated Democrats cast their ballots early, the party will be able to turn its attention to others and ease congestion in the last week of early voting.
The campaign doesn’t anticipate a decline in voting, said to Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ campaign manager, who noted that “this large turnout in week one has been a significant component of our plan.”
Abrams’ goal has been to increase the electorate by persuading infrequent voters, particularly among younger generations and nonwhites of all ages, from the beginning of her first race for governor four years ago. Kemp is white, whereas she is black.
Groh-Wargo said that 16% of early voters—including those who cast ballots by mail and in person—had not cast ballots in Georgia as of yet for the 2018 election. Additionally, she said that in 2020, when Democrats triumphed, around 55,000 early voters did not cast a ballot.
These patterns, according to her, indicate that the plan is succeeding, at least for the first few days of early voting. However, Kemp has been ahead in virtually all public polls, and his team is still working to win over independents and some Black voters in addition to Republican partisans.
Mitchell said, “We are sure that Gov. Kemp’s track record of achievement and his outlook for the future will continue to draw voters from all around the Peach State.”
About 35.5% of the advance votes were cast by Black voters, according to the Abrams campaign, who boasted of significant Black participation so far. When Biden won in 2020 after a week of advance voting, that percentage was 33%. When Abrams lost in 2018, it was 31%.
Groh-Wargo also called attention to Black males, noting that according to statistics by the campaign, 97,000 of them had already cast ballots, compared to 45,000 at this stage in Abrams’ unsuccessful campaign. In her second campaign, Abrams—who would become the country’s first female Black governor—has publicly focused on winning over Black males.
Even though Democrats claim that the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion would influence women nationwide, the Georgia electorate does not yet show a rise in female participation.
According to data, women make up 54.5% of the advance vote so far, which is approximately typical for Georgia general elections. It is noteworthy, however, that 59% of those who requested postal ballots are female, and the majority of them have not yet been answered. So there’s still a chance that there will be more women voters than normal.