Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday joined mounting calls from corporate leaders against the new Georgia restrictive voting law and other voting restrictions around the country.
In a statement to Axios, Cook pointed to the Black community’s long history of fighting for the right to vote.
“American history is the story of expanding the right to vote to all citizens, and Black people, in particular, have had to march, struggle and even give their lives for more than a century to defend that right,” Cook said.
Cook said that Apple values the right for every eligible citizen to exercise their right to vote.
“We support efforts to ensure that our democracy’s future is more hopeful and inclusive than its past,” Cook said.
The Apple CEO’s condemnation of voting restrictions was issued a day after the floodgates opened following Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s statement blasting the “unacceptable” legislation in Georgia.
Hours after Bastian’s criticism of the Georgia law was issued in a companywide memo on Wednesday, other corporations with Georgia ties such as Microsoft and Coca-Cola came out against the legislation.
Many Georgia-based corporations had initially issued statements on the state’s restrictive voting law upon its passage last week, but fell short of condemning it.
Backlash against the corporations’ initial muted opposition to the law ensued amid a number of Black community and civil rights groups filing at least three lawsuits challenging several of the law’s provisions.
Restrictive provisions of the new Georgia voting law include new ID requirements for mail voting, limits on dropbox use and banning the distribution of food and most beverages to voters waiting in line.
