Companies are condemning Georgia's new restrictive voting law. Their criticism came too late.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/4/5/22368566/corporate-response-georgia-sb202


Corporate America has, once again, found itself in the crosshairs of politics with the passage of Georgia’s restrictive new voting law, which was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp last week. The bill, known as SB 202, will increase voting restrictions for Georgians by requiring identification for mail-in ballots, shrinking the window for early and absentee voting, limiting the number of ballot drop boxes, banning the provision of food and water to voters waiting in line, and shifting control over local election rules to the state legislature, among other changes. (SB 202 does expand voting access to rural areas, according to a Washington Post analysis, but the added restrictions draw on a long history of voter suppression, specifically directed toward Black voters.)

Prior to the Georgia bill’s passage, few major companies directly commented on the bill, with the exception of Salesforce and Patagonia. Some, like Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, and Home Depot, were reticent due to their employment ties to the region; their corporate operations are often affected by decisions made by Georgia’s legislative body. In the past week, however, prominent American brands — from Major Baseball League to Coca-Cola — have publicly condemned the law’s passage and, more broadly, general efforts of voter suppression. Last Friday, the MLB declared it will relocate the 2021 All-Star Game and the MLB draft out of Atlanta.

The corporate outcry is partly a response to the collective action by voting rights activists and a letter penned by a group of prominent Black business executives. Led by Kenneth Chenault, a former chief executive at American Express, and Kenneth Frazier, a chief executive at Merck, 72 Black business leaders signed on to a letter that urged corporate America to “publicly and directly oppose new laws that would restrict the rights of Black voters,” according to the New York Times.

The letter didn’t lob criticism at any specific company or executive, and some of the corporate signers themselves previously did not take a public stance on the law. Yet Frazier told the New York Times that he hoped the letter would encourage companies to speak out against dozens of similar bills in other states. “The Georgia legislature was the first one,” he said. “If corporate America doesn’t stand up, we’ll get these laws passed in many places in this country.”

*snip*

[Mary in S. Carolina]

1. Watch what they do

not what they say. I am boycotting all of them.

[Midnight Writer]

2. Lip service. They did nothing to stop it and they will do nothing to hold the GOP accountable.

Corporations are not our friends.

[SheltieLover]

5. +1

[tirebiter]

3. I usually don't pay close attention to the all star game.

The American League has too good a record in the allstargame and I’m a National League fanboy. With the unnatural inclusion of the DH to the NL, I may give it a shot this year. They took a chance by bailing on Atlanta. I’ll reward that and give them a Nielsen lift.
I’ll be drinking Mexican Coke, anyway.'

[gratuitous]

4. To be fair, SB 202 was passed and signed into law all in one day

Organizing opposition to the bill was on a very short time table:

Story from NPR here, detailing SB 202's passage by the Senate on March 25, then over to the House for a quick vote, and to the governor for signature that afternoon.