Peach Tree Times

Control of the U.S. Senate has come down to Georgia voters, and companies that voiced opposition to last year’s voting law changes are assessing how they have affected the voting process.

After the Election Integrity Act passed in Georgia in 2021, several companies spoke out against it, including Meta, formerly known as Facebook.

According to Newsweek, the Election Integrity Act limits ballot drop boxes, requires photo ID to vote by mail and bans giving food and drink to voters in line. Many corporations came out against the law, including Apple, Facebook, Merck, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, Google, CitiGroup, JP Morgan Chase, American Express, Porsche North America, UPS, Microsoft, Aflac, Bank of America, Cisco, Viacom CBS, as well as the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Hawks. 

"We support making voting as accessible and broad-based as possible and oppose efforts to make it harder for people to vote," Facebook Vice President Roy Austin said, according to Axios.

When asked about the topic, Meta spokesperson Corey Chambliss referred Peach Tree Times to factsheets regarding the midterms that outline the company's approach. One sheet states that the company spent $5 million in fact-checking and media literacy initiatives before the election.

"We also spoke with WABE around Georgia's primary in May about our Voting Information Center, which helps connect people with reliable information and remains active ahead of the runoff election," Chambliss said.

Turnout for the Georgia midterm election was 52.7%, higher than the national average of 46.9%, Outkick reported. Georgia's passage of the Election Integrity Act prompted accusations of voter suppression targeting Black people, with President Joe Biden calling the measure "Jim Crow 2.0." The legislation made some changes to existing voting laws, including enhancing ID requirements for absentee voting and regulating drop boxes.

According to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgia voters surpassed the 2.5 million mark for early voting. In 2018, Georgia voters cast 1.8 million early ballots and in 2020, 2.6 million early ballots were cast.

“Georgia voters came out in near presidential-level numbers,” Raffensperger said in a press release.

According to the state's voter data, 33.1% of the total number of ballots accepted were submitted by minority voters of Black, Hispanic and Asian demographics. There were 2,537,210 ballots accepted, with 839,032 of those being minority ballots. Black Georgians cast 741,528 ballots, accounting for 29.2% of all accepted ballots in the state.

Analysis of the early voting demographics pointed toward an “older and Blacker” electorate, Georgia Public Broadcasting reported.

This year was the first major election since the state passed overhauled voting regulations in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Critics have argued that those changes, collectively in the Election Integrity Act, were intended to tamp down the influence of minority voters, as well as those with disabilities and the elderly. The changes included adding ID requirements for those voting by mail and an extra Saturday on the early voting schedule, the Georgia Recorder reported.

Georgia’s runoff vote Tuesday between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will go a long way to determining how often the Senate will have to turn to Vice President Kamala Harris for a tie-breaking vote over the next two years. Democrats currently hold 48 seats, with two independents who tend to vote with Democrats; Republicans currently have 49 seats, so getting to 50 could result in many 50-50 outcomes that Harris would have to decide.