The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce on Friday pledged to help fight back against the GOP-controlled Georgia state legislature’s aggressive push to slash voting rights.
“The bills under consideration impact a range of election related issues. We have prioritized addressing absentee voting, drop boxes, weekend voting and voter ID laws,” Katie Kirkpatrick, the president of the organization, announced in a statement. “We will continue to work with legislators to take steps that maximize voter participation, remove obstacles and maintain election integrity.”
The chamber “will continue to use our voices to keep accessibility, convenience and security at the center of any discussions about changes to our election process,” she added.
Kirkpatrick’s announcement adds to increasing pressure from Georgia’s business community, including corporate giants such as Coca-Cola and UPS, against the state GOP’s anti-democracy crusade.
Realizing that higher voter turnout tends to harm them at the ballot box, Republicans across the country are pushing restrictions to make it more difficult to vote. The Peach State has emerged as a flashpoint in these wave of attacks on voting access in wake of ex-President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.
The legislation put forth by Georgia Republicans, which would largely disenfranchise Black voters, aims to repeal no-excuse absentee voting, add burdensome voter ID requirements and cut back on Sunday voting, among other major restrictions.
Stacey Abrams, Georgia’s leading voting rights advocate, has slammed the bills as a “redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie.”
