Georgia’s new voting law, recently signed by Gov. Brian Kemp is not the only overtly partisan effort across the US to suppress participation from heavily Democratic jurisdictions that are home to the largest concentrations of Black and Brown voters, but it is certainly the most far-reaching. The new law aims to thwart mail-in ballots by imposing new identification requirements and shortened vote-by-mail application deadlines, limits the places where absentee ballots can be dropped off, shortens the early voting period and gives voters less time to mail their ballots back, prohibits groups from handing water to voters while they stand in line waiting to vote, prohibits the use of mobile voting vans, and institutes several other procedures that can delay or prevent local election boards from certifying election results.
Attorney and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams noted this law “hurts voters of color, increases taxes on struggling families & steals power from local governments.” While it will almost certainly be challenged in court, the American Anthropological Association finds that this blatant attempt at voter suppression is racist in its intent and effects.