Georgia Republicans Spin ‘Voting Rights’ Language in Secession Push
A campaign to secede a large swath of Atlanta has emphasized a “right to vote.” But the same lawmakers who support it have pushed for rules that make voting less accessible.
A voter arrives at the Buckhead library in Atlanta for the Georgia Senate runoff election in December 2020. The number of ballot drop boxes for early voting was substantially cut back in the Election Integrity Act of 2021.
Photographer: Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
A few days before civil rights leaders led President Joe Biden on a march to call for expanded voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, earlier this month, state senators in Georgia engaged in a heated debate about their own voting rights.
“I have heard nothing but people crying out for the right to vote,” said State Senator Carden Summers, during debates on a bill that would allow residents of Atlanta’s wealthiest and whitest neighborhoods to vote by referendum to secede from the city and create Buckhead City. “We’re doing something that we’ve often been accused of and that’s suppressing and disenfranchising voters by not giving them the right to vote. When we can give someone the right to vote, we have done our job.”