Elizabeth Warren: GOP Election Integrity Efforts Taking Georgia ‘Back to Jim Crow’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tapped into the rhetoric used by her colleagues, and President Biden himself, and accused GOP lawmakers of taking Georgia “back to Jim Crow” by pursuing election integrity measures.

“The Republican who is sitting in Stacey Abrams’ chair just signed a despicable voter suppression bill into law to take Georgia back to Jim Crow,” Warren said Thursday night, demanding her colleagues to pass the “For the People Act,” which would largely federalize U.S. elections moving forward:

The Republican who is sitting in Stacey Abrams’ chair just signed a despicable voter suppression bill into law to take Georgia back to Jim Crow. The Senate must pass the #ForThePeople Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Act immediately – our democracy is at stake tonight. https://t.co/xDolZO9Bf3

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 26, 2021

Warren’s tweet included footage of police removing state Rep. Park Cannon (D) on Thursday after she knocked on Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) door while he livestreamed an announcement of signing the election integrity measures into law. Those include voter ID laws, as well as limiting ballot drop boxes. Democrats, however, routinely categorize such efforts as acts of “voter suppression.”

Mike Reed, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Republican National Committee, responded to Warren’s assertions, explaining the bill “actually expands access to in-person weekend voting, and continues wide-access to absentee ballots as long as i.d. is provided”:

The bill actually expands access to in-person weekend voting, and continues wide-access to absentee ballots as long as i.d. is provided (which has support of vast majority of the electorate.) Sounds like you didn't read what was signed… https://t.co/fjYVU2S1CX

— Mike Reed (@reed1311) March 26, 2021

“Sounds like you didn’t read what was signed…,” he added, echoing the facts laid out by Heritage Action, which corrected the record after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made false assertions about Georgia’s election integrity efforts during Wednesday’s Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on the “For the People Act.” During the hearing, Schumer compared state election integrity efforts to the era of Jim Crow.

“Some of these voter suppression laws in Georgia and other Republican states smack of Jim Crow rearing its ugly head once again. It is 160 years since the 13, 14, and 15th amendments abolished slavery, and Jim Crow stills seems to be with us,” Schumer said, describing the laws and “their various cousins in Republican state legislatures across the country” as “one of the greatest threats we have to modern democracy in America.”

President Biden also criticized GOP election integrity efforts during his first press conference as president on Thursday, contending that such proposals make “Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”

Watch:

The White House / YouTube

Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson praised Georgia’s “Election Integrity Act of 2021,” which Kemp signed on Thursday.

“Reforms to make voter ID requirements and early voting access more consistent statewide, modernize the state’s voting rolls, and ensure robust oversight of voting and elections will protect Georgia’s votes and make the state a model for the rest of the country,” Anderson said.