Kemp signs restrictive GA voting bill; Dem lawmaker arrested for protesting

[BmorePat87]

In response to high voter turnout that favored Democrats in two recent elections, GA Republicans have passed a voting law that implements a series of restrictive voting practices aimed at lowering voter turnout and targeting voting methods typically used by Black voters in GA.

Despite legal losses by the Trump campaign to overturn the election on a wholly fabricated claim of fraud and top GOP election officials in GA noting that there was no fraud, state lawmakers moved forward to ensure that it would be harder for people to vote, claiming the measures are aimed at preventing fraud.

The law grew substantially over the last week as Republicans piled more restrictions into it, including preventing the state from sending everyone mail in ballots, making it illegal to give food or water to voters waiting in line, and requiring copies of ID cards attached to both the applications for and the actual mail in ballots. The state can take control of local election boards and citizens can file unlimited challenges against voter registration and individual eligibility, which is likely to lead to groups targeting voter lists in areas predominately of color, a common legal practice for conservative groups.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/politics/georgia-state-house-voting-bill-passage/index.html

A member of the state legislature was arrested at the state capitol building for knocking on the closed door of the office where the signing of the bill occurred, protesting the bill by demanding that the governor sign it in public rather than in private.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/545036-georgia-state-lawmaker-arrested-after-protesting-governors-signing-of

[GMDino]

(03-26-2021, 08:50 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: In response to high voter turnout that favored Democrats in two recent elections, GA Republicans have passed a voting law that implements a series of restrictive voting practices aimed at lowering voter turnout and targeting voting methods typically used by Black voters in GA.

Despite legal losses by the Trump campaign to overturn the election on a wholly fabricated claim of fraud and top GOP election officials in GA noting that there was no fraud, state lawmakers moved forward to ensure that it would be harder for people to vote, claiming the measures are aimed at preventing fraud.

The law grew substantially over the last week as Republicans piled more restrictions into it, including preventing the state from sending everyone mail in ballots, making it illegal to give food or water to voters waiting in line, and requiring copies of ID cards attached to both the applications for and the actual mail in ballots. The state can take control of local election boards and citizens can file unlimited challenges against voter registration and individual eligibility, which is likely to lead to groups targeting voter lists in areas predominately of color, a common legal practice for conservative groups.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/politics/georgia-state-house-voting-bill-passage/index.html

A member of the state legislature was arrested at the state capitol building for knocking on the closed door of the office where the signing of the bill occurred, protesting the bill by demanding that the governor sign it in public rather than in private.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/545036-georgia-state-lawmaker-arrested-after-protesting-governors-signing-of

You have to figure there will be immediate legal challenges so I wonder if this even goes into effect.

But it is very telling that this was their go to move and they did it in private.

[BigPapaKain]

Well, by their own admission if every American could vote easily the GoP would never win an election again. So of course their go to move is to make it as hard and painful as possible to vote.

[Mickeypoo]

I'm all for extremely limited mail in ballots and voter id.

[TheUberHuber]

(03-26-2021, 11:47 AM)Mickeypoo Wrote: I'm all for extremely limited mail in ballots and voter id.

Shocker 

[Mickeypoo]

(03-26-2021, 11:52 AM)TheUberHuber Wrote: Shocker 

Go to the polls unless you physically cannot and show your ID to prove who you are.  Seems pretty reasonable to me.  

I just had to show my ID to get my military discount at Lowes, but to vote, oh hell no.  smh.

[GMDino]

(03-26-2021, 12:23 PM)Mickeypoo Wrote: Go to the polls unless you physically cannot and show your ID to prove who you are.  Seems pretty reasonable to me.  

I just had to show my ID to get my military discount at Lowes, but to vote, oh hell no.  smh.

Why?

We trust the postal service with everything.  Why not make voting easier?

Trump used it.  His whole family did.  

He did this year.

Why are you against it?  Can't be about fraud.  There was virtually nothing found.  So why?

[Mickeypoo]

(03-26-2021, 12:32 PM)GMDino Wrote: Why?

We trust the postal service with everything.  Why not make voting easier?

Trump used it.  His whole family did.  

He did this year.

Why are you against it?  Can't be about fraud.  There was virtually nothing found.  So why?

Just how I believe it should be done.  You are welcome to your opinion.

[Au165]

I am okay with requiring in-person voting if we make it a federal holiday that protects people from any sort of recourse against the employee for missing work to vote. I think in that case you also need to assure there is ample and sufficient transportation for anyone who needs a ride to the poll. Voting should not be only for those who can afford, or have the flexibility to take off work, or who have steady transportation to get there.

At the same time, we have made everything else in life easier to do. There is no real value to requiring people to be there, but if we can meet in the middle at the place above I am good with it.

[GMDino]

(03-26-2021, 12:35 PM)Mickeypoo Wrote: Just how I believe it should be done.  You are welcome to your opinion.

That's great.  Not a reason that should make it harder for everyone else though.

Really not even a valid reason.

You really have no thoughts as to why other than you just think so?

[TheUberHuber]

(03-26-2021, 12:35 PM)Mickeypoo Wrote: Just how I believe it should be done.  You are welcome to your opinion.

Got any reason to believe that way? Or is it just another thing fox news told you to do?

[TheUberHuber]

(03-26-2021, 12:44 PM)Au165 Wrote: I am okay with requiring in-person voting if we make it a federal holiday that protects people from any sort of recourse against the employee for missing work to vote. I think in that case you also need to assure there is ample and sufficient transportation for anyone who needs a ride to the poll. Voting should not be only for those who can afford, or have the flexibility to take off work, or who have steady transportation to get there.

At the same time, we have made everything else in life easier to do. There is no real value to requiring people to be there, but if we can meet in the middle at the place above I am good with it.

And what about people who travel for a living? 

[Au165]

(03-26-2021, 12:56 PM)TheUberHuber Wrote: And what about people who travel for a living? 

I assumed this wouldn't impact the standard absentee available for people who are out of state, more the expanded push people are making now for universal mail in. 

[Mickeypoo]

(03-26-2021, 12:48 PM)TheUberHuber Wrote: Got any reason to believe that way? Or is it just another thing fox news told you to do?

The go to when someone does not agree with your way of thinking.  Or you could have left it off entirely and just asked the question.

[Mickeypoo]

(03-26-2021, 12:57 PM)Au165 Wrote: I assumed this wouldn't impact the standard absentee available for people who are out of state, more the expanded push people are making now for universal mail in. 

Correct.

[GMDino]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rep-park-cannon-arrested_n_605d2ecfc5b6531eed0366e6

Quote:Georgia Lawmaker Charged With Felony For Knocking On Gov. Brian Kemp’s Office Door
State Rep. Park Cannon, a Black woman, was arrested and accused of obstruction after protesting a bill that makes it harder for Georgians to vote.

By Nick Visser

• [/url]
• [url=https://twitter.com/share?text=A+Georgia+state+lawmaker+was+arrested+and+charged+with+a+felony+after+knocking+on+Gov.+Brian+Kemp%27s+office+door+in+protest+of+a+restrictive+voting+rights+bill+he+was+signing+into+law.&url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rep-park-cannon-arrested_n_605d2ecfc5b6531eed0366e6&via=HuffPostPol&hashtags=]
• [/url]
  
  

 
Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon (D) was arrested and charged with felony obstruction on Thursday night after she protested the signing of a [url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-voter-suppression-bill_n_605d01dfc5b67593e056fb32]restrictive new bill that will dramatically limit access to voting for communities of color.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported that Cannon, a Black woman who has served in the Georgia House of Representatives since 2016, was detained by Georgia State Patrol officers after she attempted to witness the signing of the law. 
The Republican-led Georgia legislature passed the measure on Thursday, which will impose new identification requirements on those who vote by mail, limit the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots and make it illegal for voting groups to give food or water to people standing in line to cast their ballots.

Clips from a live-streamed video show Cannon knocking on the door of Gov. Brian Kemp’s ® office after speaking with Georgia State Patrol officers. The officers then place her under arrest.

“Why are you arresting her?” This Facebook Live video from @TWareStevens shows the moment authorities detained state Rep. Park Cannon as @GovKemp was behind those doors signing elections restrictions into law. #gapol pic.twitter.com/U1xMJ6tZrY

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) March 25, 2021

 

Cannon said late Thursday she had been released from jail, adding she was “not the first Georgian to be arrested for fighting voter suppression.”

“I’d love to say I’m the last, but we know that isn’t true,” Cannon wrote on Twitter. “But someday soon that last person will step out of jail for the last time and breathe a first breath knowing that no one will be jailed again for fighting for the right to vote.”

In a statement, the Georgia State Patrol said Cannon was “beating on the door” to the governor’s office and had been warned several times that she should stop. 

“She was advised that she was disturbing what was going on inside and if she did not stop, she would be placed under arrest,” the agency said in a statement.

Cannon was arrested and taken to Fulton County Jail, where she was charged with two offenses: felony obstruction of law enforcement and a misdemeanor of preventing or disrupting General Assembly sessions or other meetings of members. 

ALYSSA POINTER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION VIA ASSOCIATED PRESSState Rep. Park Cannon (D) is placed into the back of a Georgia State Capitol patrol car after being arrested by Georgia state troopers.

ALYSSA POINTER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS“She was advised that she was disturbing what was going on inside and if she did not stop, she would be placed under arrest,” the agency said in a statement.

“She was doing her job as an elected official,” state Rep. Erica Thomas (D) told the Journal-Constitution after the arrest.
“She was asking where the governor was and where the bill was being signed.”


Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group founded by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, said the day was a reminder of the state’s “dark past.”

This is not the first time Kemp has been embroiled in controversy over the arrest of elected officials. In 2010, the state government, operating under Kemp’s authority, arrested 12 Black women who won seats in a school board election and charged them with 120 felonies.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

I have no issue with a person being arrested after they are warned repeatedly that if they do not desist they will be arrested. She wasn't charged with anything, only the DA can file charges and I doubt that a felony will be among them.

[GMDino]

A little more added to the "charges"...lol.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/981471672/police-arrest-georgia-lawmaker-as-governor-signs-law-overhauling-elections

Quote:Cannon's arrest warrant alleges that she "stomped" on an officer's foot three times as she was being apprehended and escorted out of the property, the AJC reported.

Quote:Georgia's Constitution says lawmakers "shall be free from arrest during sessions of the General Assembly" except for treason, felony or breach of the peace.

As usual the gop hides their actions.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-26-2021, 02:23 PM)GMDino Wrote: A little more added to the "charges"...lol.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/981471672/police-arrest-georgia-lawmaker-as-governor-signs-law-overhauling-elections

Wait, so you think it's ok or funny that she assaulted a police officer doing their job?

Quote:As usual the gop hides their actions.

How were they hiding when she knew exactly where to go?  Also, was there a session at that time?  It does not appear that she was in a session as she was in the hallway banging on the governor's door.  The merits of the law notwithstanding, her actions do not seem to become an elected official, at least to the standards to which you've held others.

[BigPapaKain]

(03-26-2021, 01:54 PM)GMDino Wrote: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rep-park-cannon-arrested_n_605d2ecfc5b6531eed0366e6

They arrested her a lot quicker than those assholes on January 6th.

Weird.