Peach Tree Times

A group of conservative black ministers took out a full-page ad in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to counter what they call “the lies” from President Joe Biden and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams about the Georgia voting reform act recently signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican.

The law, the Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021, tightens accountability in state elections in light of some of the voting practices adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Biden called the law “Jim Crow on steroids” in reference to voting laws in the South, repealed decades ago, that restricted many blacks from voting.

The ad, paid for by Conservative Clergy of Color, countered that the Biden and Abrams "lies have consequences," including the loss of $100 million for minority business owners because Major League Baseball, citing the new law and encouraged by Biden, moved its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

“Biden and Abrams keep saying the Election Integrity Act is worse than Jim Crow, which is an insult to the millions of black Americans," Bishop Aubrey Shines, founder of Glory to God Ministries and a founding member of Conservative Clergy of Color, said in a statement. "The truth is that this law actually expands access to the ballot box, while also taking common sense steps to protect the sanctity of every legal vote. We believe that it should be easy to vote and hard to cheat and the Georgia Integrity Act makes that possible for all voters.”

The statement from the conservative ministers noted that the new law allows for expanded early voting hours and additional early voting options on weekends, including Sundays. It also authorizes absentee ballot drop boxes for the first time, turning what had been a temporary measure with serious chain of custody violations adopted amid a deadly pandemic into a permanent feature of Georgia's elections.

Allegations that voter ID requirements are racially discriminatory are also lies promoted by Biden and Abrams, the group said, since the Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021 establishes a wide variety of legitimate forms of identification, including utility bills. Previously, absentee ballots could only be authenticated through signature matching, a laborious and inherently subjective process that invited weaknesses in the system.

Voter ID laws enacted in Georgia in 2007 actually increased black voter turnout, say supporters of the recent Georgia measure. A record number of Georgia blacks voted for Barack Obama in 2008, his first run for President. Black turnout that year was 76%, or four percentage points higher than in 2004, before the voter ID law. Georgia black turnout was also higher in the 2010 midterm elections, seven points higher than the comparable 2006 midterms, according to a Reuters analysis.

Obama lost Georgia to GOP candidate John McCain.

“I don’t think it has hampered anybody from being able to let their voice be heard,” said Georgia’s then-secretary of state, Brian Kemp.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Georgia is one of 36 states requiring voters to show a form of identification at the polls. It is one of six "strict photo ID" states; voters cannot vote without a photo ID. The others are Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Voters who don't present one they can vote provisionally; their vote then only counts if they return and show an ID within three days.

A March 2021 survey by pollster Rasmussen Reports found that 75% of likely U.S. Voters believe voters should be required to show photo identification such as a driver’s license before being allowed to vote, and 21 percent are opposed to such a requirement. That's up from 67% in favor, per a Rasmussen poll in Oct. 2018.