ATLANTA — A defiant Gov. Brian Kemp lashed out Saturday at Major League Baseball and Atlanta’s leading corporations for criticizing Georgia’s changes to its elections, saying they were bowing to pressure from Democrats who had mischaracterized the state’s new voting law.
“Major League Baseball caved to the fears and lies of liberal activists,” Kemp said. “They ignored the facts of our new election integrity law and they ignored the consequences of their decision on our local community.”
MLB announced on Friday that in response to Georgia’s new voting law it would move this season’s July All-Star game from Truist Park to a ballpark in another state.
The decision from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred came eight days after Kemp signed the sweeping elections overhaul into law. The changes were strongly opposed by Georgia Democrats and voting rights activists, and Manfred remarked that MLB “opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
Speaking in front of a group of largely unmasked supporters crowded inside the state Capitol, Kemp said, “In the middle of a pandemic, Major League Baseball put the wishes of Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden ahead of the economic well-being of hard-working Georgians.”
Shortly after Kemp signed the legislation into law, the president characterized it as “a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.” Abrams, the voting rights activist and former gubernatorial candidate, has also strongly criticized the changes. On Saturday, Kemp accused Biden and Abrams of lying to the American people about Georgia’s new law.
Kemp warned that the “cancel culture” and partisan activists would target other events and businesses.
“They don’t care about jobs,” he said. “They don’t care about our communities and they certainly don’t care about access to the ballot box.”
Kemp said if the MLB truly cared about voting rights it would have announced it was moving its headquarters out of New York, arguing that Georgia’s elections law is more favorable to voters than New York’s.
While critics say the changes are designed to suppress turnout from voters of color, Kemp and other supporters say the voting overhaul will increase confidence in Georgia’s voting system.
The new law covers voting access, ballot counting, election oversight and runoffs.
Absentee voters will be required to submit driver’s license numbers or other documentation under a new process for checking their identity, replacing signature matching processes. The new law also sets an earlier deadline for requesting absentee ballots.
There will be as little as one week of early voting before runoffs, down from the current three-week early voting period.
Weekend voting before general elections will be expanded, with mandatory voting hours on two Saturdays statewide. Counties will retain the option to allow early voting on two Sundays.
The changes also add limits on drop boxes — they must be located inside early voting locations and only available during voting hours — and allow state takeovers of local election boards. However, Kemp pointed out that for the first time under the new law, the state requires each county to have at least one drop box.
Georgia faces four lawsuits challenging the law, saying it would illegally suppress the votes of minorities. Influential business leaders have also spoken out against the voting changes, including Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.
Kemp said he would not be intimated or silenced by the actions. “Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola and Delta may be scared of Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden and the left, but I am not.”
