Mississippi senator challenges boycott over Georgia voting laws
Sen. Roger Wicker slammed Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball for their reactions after the Georgia Legislature passed new election laws.
Wicker, a Republican senator from Mississippi, said in a column in The Daily Signal that “prominent members of the media, government and big business have spread a wildfire of misinformation about a newly-passed voting law in Georgia.”
MLB announced earlier this month that it was pulling this year’s All-Star game out of Atlanta in response to Georgia’s new law.
Georgia isn’t the only state looking at changing voting laws. The Washington Post reported Republican lawmakers in at least 43 states were considering measures that would limit mail-in balloting and provide stricter ID requirements and absentee voting regulations, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.
Wicker said if the CEOs took time to read Georgia’s election bill . . . “they would learn that it makes voting easier in Georgia, not harder. The law expands the window for early voting, allows no excuse mail-in voting to continue, adds 100 new ballot drop boxes, and allows voters to get a government-issued ID at no charge,” Wicker said.
“It also makes elections more transparent by prohibiting ballot counters from stopping the count in the middle of the night,” he said.
Critics say the law makes it more difficult to vote, especially for minority voters.
One of the more controversial provisions prohibits handing out money or gifts — including food and drink — to voters in line. Advocates say that cracks down on organizations trying to influence voters before they cast a ballot. Critics say it’s “cruel,” according to a report by Associated Press, and would penalize groups or individuals from giving water to someone waiting in a long line.
Wicker said it is “revealing” that these same companies objecting to Georgia’s election law are making billions in communist China, which “does not even pretend to hold elections. “
These companies and organizations are trying to “cancel” Georgia, he said, which is a term used to shame or penalize those who have done or said something that is considered offensive.
“Coca-Cola, for example, was initially silent on the Georgia bill until activists staged a “die-in” at their Atlanta headquarters and liberal sportscaster Keith Olbermann began pushing for a boycott of Georgia products,” Wicker said. “Once Coca-Cola fell in line, leaders from more than 100 other companies joined in a moral posturing stampede by releasing a vaguely concerned statement.”
He cited cases where corporate pressure was successful, like when Indiana passed a religious freedom law and the NCAA threatened to move basketball games out of the state. Lawmakers reversed many of the bill’s protections, he said.
It doesn’t always work, Wicker said. In 2019, Georgia passed pro-life measures and despite 180 corporate executives signing a letter calling the provisions “bad for business,” state lawmakers stood firm, he said.
