Warnock: Just Because Georgia Had ‘Record Turnout,’ It ‘Doesn’t Mean There Isn’t Voter Suppression’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “ReidOut,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) acknowledged that there was “record turnout,” in his election, but argued that “just because people stood in long lines and endured the rain in order to vote, that doesn’t mean there isn’t voter suppression. The people just decided that they weren’t going to have their voices silenced.”

Warnock said, “After I won, after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) won, the State of Georgia actually doubled down on its voter suppression tactics. And the question we have to ask ourselves is why, and also how? … We would not have SB 202 in Georgia with its awful voter suppression provisions, we likely would not have it if we had that powerful tool of pre-clearance that used to stop these bad things from happening before they happened. … We are seeing, and we saw in my election, record turnout, but let’s be very clear, just because people stood in long lines and endured the rain in order to vote, that doesn’t mean there isn’t voter suppression. The people just decided that they weren’t going to have their voices silenced. The truth is, the Brennan Center recently released a study that showed that, sadly, the gap between white voter turnout and black voter turnout has actually widened. And so, we need this tool. We need these tools that used to be passed on a bipartisan basis. And I’m urging my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to do what’s right, protect our democracy, in a moment in which we’re watching an insurrectionist ex-president trying to diminish it in every way.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett