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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing the state of Georgia over its new election security law and its requirements for voter ID, alleging that the new legislation is designed to make it much harder for black Georgians to vote — despite the fact that many other states have the same requirements.
Quick Facts
“Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia’s election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act,” Garland said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said, “The changes to absentee voting were not made in a vacuum. These changes come immediately after successful absentee voting in the 2020 election cycle, especially among Black voters. SB 202 seeks to halt and reverse this progress.”
Derrick John, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), supports the lawsuit, saying,
“The recent Jim Crow election laws in Georgia are a blatant assault on the American people’s most fundamental and sacred right, the right to vote. Today’s announcement from the Attorney General speaks to the level of urgency that is needed to protect our fragile democracy and ensure that all voices are heard. We are in a race against time, and against those working to discount us.”
The Biden administration continues to trumpet the President’s false claims that the law is “Jim Crow on steroids” and suppresses the votes of black citizens. Even the Washington Post gave Biden “four Pinocchios” on this statement.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, responded to the lawsuit by saying, “This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start. “
Referencing the Democrat’s attempt to pass the “For the People Act,” Kemp said,
“Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their allies tried to force an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress — and failed. Now, they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy. As Secretary of State, I fought the Obama Justice Department twice to protect the security of our elections — and won. I look forward to going three for three to ensure it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat in Georgia.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, “These narratives are as lazy, biased, and political as they are demonstrably wrong.”
He added,
“There’s no rational argument against requiring state ID — provided for free to those who don’t have a driver’s license — for absentee ballots. I implemented our first version of that last year — every absentee ballot request that came in through the state website was cross-referenced with the driver’s license database and other records,” Raffensperger added. “This also requires counties to offer more weekend voting and puts drop boxes into law for the first time — the State Board of Elections adopted them as an emergency measure last year in response to the pandemic and [they] would have gone away without direct action by the General Assembly.”
The Georgia election law rocketed into the news after Democrats including President Biden and Stacey Abrams falsely claimed that the new law was intended to deny black Georgians the right to vote. Abrams has since backed down from her stance after corporate and Hollywood boycotts of Georgia over the law, such as Major League Baseball’s (MLB) decision to move its All-Star Game from predominantly black Atlanta to predominantly white Denver, negatively impacted the state’s economy.
This action by the DOJ is a completely slanderous and absurd attack on Georgia, not because its new law suppresses the votes of blacks, but because the left wants federal control of elections and to increase their cheat through the elimination of voter ID requirements across the country.
Democrats claim that black people are unable to obtain photo ID, a baseless and inherently racist assertion that assumes black people lack the wherewithal to find a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) location and provide the paperwork needed to obtain an ID — or to obtain another valid form of photo ID such as from any other government entity or from their employer.
It’s not only racist but out of touch with reality as Americans are already required to present a photo ID to interact with the bank, the doctor’s office, the airlines, and all levels of government; to buy certain types of sinus medication and pain pills; and even to pick up pre-purchased tickets at a Major League Baseball game. In addition, the National Motor Voter Act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton to increase voting access for minorities and has been in effect since 1995, makes it possible for citizens to obtain a voter ID and register to vote during a single visit to the DMV — including in Georgia.
This is all common sense, as seen by the fact that Americans of all ethnicities overwhelmingly support voter ID laws, including 69 percent of blacks, leaving one to question why Democrats don’t want Americans to feel confident in their elections.
Voting is not supposed to be a free for all. It is a sacred privilege of citizenship and a civic obligation. As such, every American citizen has the right to know that the vote they cast is the vote that’s counted. And it is the responsibility of government to make absolutely certain that this is the case — to do otherwise is to truly disenfranchise voters and their votes.
Not only does the Georgia voting law not restrict voting access, it actually expands it, and the law is less restrictive than in states such as New York where the MLB is based; Colorado, where the league moved its All-Star Game; and President Biden’s home state of Delaware.
This lawsuit against Georgia is an all-out assault on state sovereignty and control over elections codified in Article 1 of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment — as well as an attempt to make elections less secure. Even if the lawsuit must go all the way to the Supreme Court, the DOJ must be soundly defeated in its quest to ensure that the federal government cannot wrest control and power from the people and give it to the Democratic Party.
Garland himself was once an appellate judge for the D.C. Circuit Court. Even though he is now part of the executive branch and serving as Attorney General, his oath and loyalty is still to the Constitution and the consistent application of the rule of law — not to the party that hired him.
