Will GA companies that supported racial equity now fight voter suppression, activists ask

After the 2020 general election and the Georgia Senate runoff election in January 2021, state legislators raced to write legislation to increase voter restrictions in Georgia.

With the end of session approaching on April 2, community activists and Civil Rights groups are working to convince lawmakers to vote against several omnibus election bills.

Members of Black Voters Matter stood near the entrance of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. on Rocky Creek Road in Macon on Friday holding signs and shouting “Kill the Bill.”

Danny Glover, a community activist, said the protesters’ goal was to bring awareness to voter suppression in Georgia that happened after the runoff election and encourage corporations, like Coca-Cola, to show their support.

“We saw laws change. We saw our electoral system pretty much made one of the most difficult places to vote in the entire country by the exact same people who said this was the safest system,” Glover said. “Our rights have been infringed upon every day by the Republicans and those conservatives that are in the Georgia House.”

Fenika Miller, the Georgia state coordinator for Black Voters Matter, said the group is running a corporate accountability campaign to garner support to squash House Bill 531, Senate Bill 241 and Senate Bill 202, which she said would restrict Georgian’s access to vote.

In the summer of 2020, many companies, such as Coca-Cola, took a pledge during the protests against the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

“They were going to stand on the side of racial equity and inclusion and help to move the needle to make sure that communities of color and Black communities in particular were protected, and so, all that we’re doing is asking them to make good on that pledge,” she said. “We’re asking them to be bold and to take a stand and to say that we do not believe that restricting access to the ballot will help democracy.”

The three bills contain multiple restrictions, including reducing the number of early voting days, restricting local boards of elections’ control over administering elections and creating ID restrictions, Miller said. The bills also criminalize “line warming,” where organizations provide food and water to people waiting in line to vote, she said.

“We believe that this is a direct reflection of, one, that these sponsors and cosponsors of these bills have bought into the big lie that there was election fraud, which we know is not the case; and then also, because of the historic turnout among Black and brown voters and communities of color across the state in the general and again in the Senate runoff,” she said. “This doesn’t just affect Black and brown people. These measures are going to affect Georgians across the state, particularly in rural communities. We are still in the middle of a pandemic, and we should be making access to the ballot easier for folks.”

Miller hopes people will reach out to the corporate headquarters of the companies who supported the protests in the summer to let them know they expect these companies to keep their promise, she said.

Glover said people should also reach out to their representatives to encourage them to vote against the bills.

“By putting those roadblocks in the way, by making it that much more difficult, you’re causing folks to just really abandon the process,” Glover said. “When that adds up, you lead to the deterioration of our democracy. You lead to folks not wanting to participate. You lead to folks being afraid to participate.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM.