Corporations in Georgia and across the U.S. are taking forceful stances against the state’s new election law—which includes several voting restrictions—following weeks of pressure from voting rights advocates to speak out. Activists have aimed their efforts at large Georgia-based companies in particular, such as Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, who initially only offered vague statements affirming voting rights as the legislation sped through the state legislature. But on Wednesday, the CEOs of both companies publicly rebuked the new law, calling it “unacceptable,” irking leading Republicans, including Gov. Brian Kemp and state House Speaker David Ralston. And on Friday, Major League Baseball announced that it would move it’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta, citing their support for voting rights and opposition to restrictions to the ballot box, just days after President Joe Biden said he would support such a move.
Georgia’s expansive election measure, which Kemp signed into law on March 25, installed limitations on dropboxes, strengthened voter ID requirements for absentee ballots, criminalized non-poll workers giving food and water to voters in line within a specific distance, shortened runoff elections, banned the use of provisional ballots for votes cast out-of-precinct before 5 p.m. and all but eliminated the use of mobile voting buses, barring emergencies, among other new rules. Although Georgia’s Republicans backed off on initial proposals to curtail Sunday voting (the law now expands early voting weekend days in the general election) and end no-excuse absentee voting following backlash, voting rights advocates worry the law will especially harm Black and brown voters and have already collectively filed at least four lawsuits against the measure.
Across Georgia, voting rights advocates mounted several campaigns calling for corporations to speak out against the law even before the bill passed the state legislature. The tactics differed among groups, with some demanding corporate boycotts while others urged against it, arguing it could hurt working-class Georgians. Numerous Black corporate leaders also came out in opposition to the passing of laws that restrict voting access for Black voters, including the Georgia measure; after it passed, a group of 72 Black executives, including Kenneth Chenault, a former chief executive of American Express, and Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, placed a full-page ad in the New York Times’ Wednesday print edition condemning Georgia’s election law.
While companies have since released more forceful statements, advocates argue they must do much more, including divesting support from lawmakers who backed the law, publicly urging lawmakers to repeal it, publicly condemning similar laws in other state legislatures, adopting policies that make it easier for their own employees to vote and using their political clout to push for federal voting rights legislation currently before Congress.
