Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signs GOP election bill amid an outcry

A man speaks into a megaphone in front of the Georgia state Capitol building with a group of people holding protest signs

By Ben Nadler

Associated Press

March 25, 2021 Updated 4:50 PM PT

ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp drew protests Thursday as he signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.

Democrats and voting rights groups said the bill will disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color. It is part of a wave of GOP-backed election bills introduced in states around the nation after former President Trump stoked false claims that fraud led to his 2020 election defeat.

As Kemp was delivering remarks shortly after signing the bill, he was interrupted by a commotion inside his ceremonial office and asked an aide “what’s the problem” before a livestream of the event cut out.

Just outside Kemp’s office were about 10 protesters, including Democratic state Reps. Park Cannon and Erica Thomas, who are both Black. Cannon was arrested by Capitol police officers after knocking on the door of the governor’s office during his remarks.

Republican efforts to change voting laws in Georgia followed record-breaking turnout that led to Democratic victories in the presidential contest and two U.S. Senate runoffs in the once reliably red state.

Kemp signed the bill less than two hours after it received final passage in the Georgia General Assembly. With Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, the bill passed the state House on a 100-75 vote. It then was quickly agreed to by Republicans in the Senate, which voted 34 to 20 in favor.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler said the bill was filled with “voter suppression tactics.”

“We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve seen since the Jim Crow era,” Butler said.

Democratic Rep. Rhonda Burnough said the bill was based on lies told by Republicans after November’s election.

“Georgians turned out in record-breaking numbers because they could access the ballot,” Burnough said. “Lies upon lies were told about our elections in response, and now this bill is before us built on those same lies.”

Among highlights, the bill requires a photo ID in order to vote absentee by mail, after more than 1.3 million Georgia voters used that option because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also cuts the time period people have to request an absentee ballot and limits where ballot drop boxes can be placed and when they can be accessed.

Republican Rep. Jan Jones said the provisions cutting the time people have to request an absentee ballot are meant to “increase the likelihood of a voter’s vote being cast successfully,” after concerns were raised in 2020 about mail ballots not being received by counties in time to be counted.

One of the biggest changes gives the GOP-controlled legislature more control over election administration, a change that has raised concerns among voting rights groups that it could lead to greater partisan influence.

The law replaces the elected secretary of state as the chair of the state election board with a new appointee of the legislature after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rebuffed Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results. It also allows the board to remove and replace county election officials deemed to be underperforming.

That provision is widely seen as something that could be used to target Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold covering most of Atlanta, which came under fire after long lines plagued primary elections over the summer.

Republican Rep. Barry Fleming, a driving force in crafting the bill, said that provision will be only a “temporary fix, so to speak, that ends and the control is turned back over to the locals after the problems are resolved.”

The law also reduces the time frame in which runoff elections are held, including the amount of early voting for runoffs. And it bars outside groups from handing out food or water to people standing in line to vote.

The law does not contain some of the more contentious proposals floated by Republicans earlier in the session, including limits on early voting on Sundays, a popular day for Black churchgoers to vote in “souls to the polls” events. It instead mandates two Saturdays of early voting ahead of general elections, when only one is currently mandatory, and leaves two Sundays as optional.

But such changes haven’t tempered opposition from Democrats or voting rights groups.

About 50 protesters, including representatives from the NAACP, gathered across from the Capitol building Thursday in opposition to the bill.

During the rally, Bishop Reginald Jackson of the African Methodist Episcopal Church called for a boycott of Coca-Cola Co. products.

Jackson, who leads more than 400 churches across Georgia, said the Atlanta-based soft drink company had failed to live up to the commitments it made last year to support the Black Lives Matter movement by not forcefully opposing the voting bills pushed by Republicans.

“We took them at his word,” he said of Coca-Cola Chief Executive James Quincey. “Now, when they try to pass this racist legislation, we can’t get him to say anything.”

Jackson said boycotts also were possible against other large locally based companies such as Delta Air Lines and Home Depot.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce pushed against some proposals Republicans later dropped, including eliminating no-excuse absentee voting. But the business lobbies and top Atlanta corporations have not vocally opposed all changes.

Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.