In 2021, Georgia had the audacity to pass the Election Integrity Act, a bill meant to shore up the election process in the state. It was not fundamentally different from election laws in other states but -- if you'll recall -- made the Left absolutely lose their minds.
President Joe Biden called the law 'Jim Crow on steroids.'
Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led MLB to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta to protest the 'racist' law, a move that governor Brian Kemp rightly blamed on the lies from Abrams and Biden. Abrams later tried to wash her hands of her involvement in moving the All-Star game, which did significant financial damage to black-owned businesses in Atlanta.
and the DOJ sued the state (the courts upheld the key components of the law in August, 2023).
The Left argued up and down the law was racist and designed to 'suppress voters'.
Most notable in all the criticism of Georgia's election law is this, from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
That’s weird pic.twitter.com/8NY8gaPji9
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) October 16, 2024
For weeks, Georgia Democrats have insisted that the state’s new election law is the prime example for why Congress should adopt federal legislation to expand voting rights.
Vice President Kamala Harris made the same case during an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, arguing that a “renewed attempt to suppress the ability of people to vote” imperils ballot access in Georgia.
“You can support and defend people’s basic rights to participate in society while also investing in the economy and investing in its growth,” said Harris. “But we have initiatives like what’s happening in Georgia that are designed in a way that is really about suppressing our democracy.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has staunchly opposed the law, which includes ID requirements for absentee ballots, curbs the use of ballot drop boxes and gives the GOP-controlled Legislature more sway over state elections.
So it's definitely weird for a pro-Kamala account to be praising the ease of Georgia's early voting process.
Early voting was a breeze for Seth! Post your peach sticker today and tag us!#EarlyVote #HarrisWalz https://t.co/yhTFQnVSN3
— Kamala for Georgia (@KamalaForGA) October 15, 2024
What happened to 'Jim Crow 2.0', Lefties?
I'll tell you what happened.
All their caterwauling about Georgia's election integrity law was politically performative nonsense. How do we know that?
Well, for starters, at about the same time the Left was attacking RepublicanKemp in Georgia, they were praising Kentucky's Democratic governor Andy Beshear for signing into law an election bill that was more restrictive than the one Kemp signed in Georgia.
In the 2022 midterms, Georgia's early voting turnout reached record numbers and saw 95% of eligible voters registered to cast ballots. That same year, Brian Kemp -- who signed the supposed 'Jim Crow 2.0' legislation into law -- won reelection with 53.41% of the vote (handing a second defeat to Stacey Abrams).
For a long time, voters across all blocs have supporter Voter ID and by overwhelming majorities. An unscientific poll by journalist Sharyl Attkisson put support for voter ID at 99%, a Pew Research poll put support at 81%.
The only ones who oppose this are Democratic Party operatives and their allies. Why?
For starters, they think the public has the collective memory of a goldfish, and that we just magically forgot all the awful things they said about Georgia's voter integrity law, so they can champion how easy early voting is.
More important, they oppose any effort at election reform because they have a vested interest in undermining election integrity. They'll demand citizens show IDs for hurricane disaster relief aid, but not to vote, calling the former necessary but the latter 'racist.' They turn a blind eye to the illegal voter registration of non-citizens and sue to block states from removing ineligible voters from the rolls. Those things benefit their political candidates. If Republicans reaped any benefit from questionable voting practices, the Left would make election security tighter than Fort Knox.
We should treat their criticisms of election laws with the contempt they deserve and nothing more, and the next time the Left whines about any attempt to secure our elections, point to Georgia and asked them what happened to Jim Crow 2.0.
