White House stands by claims that Georgia election laws were ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ – despite record-breaking turnout and early voting in the runoff between Warnock and Walker
- The White House stood by President Joe Biden ‘s claims that Georgia ‘s voting laws represented ‘Jim Crow 2.0’
- ‘You all have reported this, that there was suppression, that – that we saw that throughout, throughout the Georgia election,’ Karine Jean-Pierre said
- Biden had previously said Georgia’s election law that passed in March 2021 represented ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ and a ‘blatant attack on the Constitution’
- The law shortened the period between the midterm general election and Tuesday’s Senate runoff to 28 days – truncating early voting too
- Some voters around the heavily Democratic Atlanta area reported two-hour waits to vote early, however Election Day voting lines were short
- Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock bested Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia’s Senate runoff
- In his victory speech, Warnock also warned that voter suppression was alive and well despite the Democratic win
The White House stood by President Joe Biden‘s claims that Georgia‘s voting laws represented ‘Jim Crow 2.0,’ despite record-breaking turnout in the 2022 midterms.
‘You all have reported this, that there was suppression, that – that we saw that throughout, throughout the Georgia election,’ said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Wednesday.
Fox News‘ Jacqui Heinrich had pointed to the president’s previous comments about Georgia’s election law that passed in March 2021, including that it represented a ‘blatant attack on the Constitution.’
Heinrich also asked if the U.S. Department of Justice planned to drop a lawsuit against the Peach State over the voting law.
‘I can’t speak to DOJ’s actions and what they’re going to do,’ Jean-Pierre answered.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock bested Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia’s Senate runoff, which brought 3.5 million voters back to the polls, after 3.9 million initially voted in November’s midterm election.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that there was ‘suppression’ in Georgia despite there being record-breaking turnout in the 2022 midterms
The Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent out a press release Wednesday touting that this represented record-breaking turnout in the state.
‘When you have engaged voters and a convenient system, you get record-breaking voter turnout – just as we’ve seen all throughout these midterms,’ Raffensperger said.
The numbers were higher than the 2018 midterms, but lower than the 2020 election – though midterms usually don’t attract as many voters compared to presidential years.
One of the things the March 2021 law changed was the timing between the general election and a runoff, cutting it down to 28 days – which also truncated the number of days for early voting.
The Thanksgiving holiday also posed a problem as state law dictated that early voting centers shouldn’t be open the Saturday after a state holiday.
Democrats won a lawsuit to allow early voting centers to be open on November 26.
Some voters in the Atlanta area – which is heavily Democratic – reported two-hour wait times to vote early.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won Tuesday’s Senate runoff race in Georgia. He said during his victory speech that he believed voter suppression was alive and well in the state
The Trump-backed Republican Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker concedes the race Tuesday night to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock
However, on Election Day – when most Republicans vote – Gabrielle Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State, reported that most voters had to wait between one and three minutes throughout the day.
During his victory speech, Warnock said Georgia’s voters were still being suppressed.
‘Let me be clear: Just because people endured long lines that wrapped around buildings, some blocks long, just beause they endured the rain and the cold and all kinds of tricks in order to vote doesn’t mean that voter suppression does not exist,’ Warnock said. ‘It simply means that you the people have decided that your voices will not be silenced.’
Warnock slammed Republican election officials who had argued there could be no early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, due to a state law that forbid it if a state holiday took place the Thursday or Friday before.
‘State officials said that we couldn’t vote on Saturday, but we sued them and we won,’ Warnock said to cheers.
‘And the people once again rose up in a multi-racial, multi-religious coalition of conscience. You endured the rain, you endured the long lines and you voted,’ he added.
During Wednesday’s briefing, Jean-Pierre credited Democrats’ success in the midterms on both President Joe Biden’s record and Republicans’ unpopular stances.
‘I’ve heard some of your colleagues say earlier this morning – that … it was a stunningly bad cycle for Republican senators. And a lot of that is because of their agenda. It is because they embodied the ultra-MAGA ideas,’ she said – a term used to describe former President Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ ideology.
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