A "Flagrant Attack on the Constitution": Biden Condemns New Law Restricting Voting Rights in Georgia

By Efe

President Joe Biden on Friday called the restrictions that Republicans have imposed on voting in Georgia and other states a "flagrant attack on the Constitution".

On Thursday night the governor of Georgia, Republican Brian Kemp, signed a state law with a reform, promoted by the conservatives, that limits the right to vote by adding new requirements to be able to vote if you want to vote by mail, between other provisions.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voting by mail was essential in the general elections on November 4, in which Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win in 28 years in that southern state.

In his statement, Biden stated that

the new law is "the Jim Crow of the 21st century."

, in reference to the norms that institutionalized racial segregation in the United States in the late 19th century.

In that sense, he warned that the Georgia reform will hurt African-American voters above all.

"Among the scandalous parts of this new state law, the voting day ends early, so workers will not be able to cast their vote after working. It adds rigid restrictions to absentee voting, which will deny the vote to countless voters." followed.

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"And it makes a crime," said Biden, "to provide water to voters while they wait in line,

queues that Republican officials have created by reducing the number of polling stations

in the state, disproportionately in black neighborhoods."

The reform in Georgia comes at a time when Democrats in the country's Senate are trying to pass federal legislation, the so-called People Act.

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Biden urged Congress to approve that rule and the law for the advancement of the John Lewis voting right (for the Congressman and civil rights defender of the same name, who died in 2020) because both rules, in his view, will protect the right to vote for all Americans.

Republicans control 30 of the 50 state parliaments in the country and, in recent weeks, have passed or are considering laws that restrict the right to vote, which comes after a record turnout was reached in the November elections. .