American companies face pressure to oppose

American corporations face growing pressures and threats of boycotts to publicly oppose Republican-backed electoral legislation in Georgia and other states that, critics say, undermine the voting rights of black Americans.

The opposition intensified on Friday, when Major League Baseball announced it would no longer host the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta this summer, with Commissioner Robert Manfred saying the league “fundamentally supports everyone’s voting rights. the Americans and opposes the restrictions on the polls “.

Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp last week signed an electoral review bill that adds new identification requirements for absentee voting, while giving the state legislature greater oversight over how elections are held.

The legislation prohibits groups of third parties from giving food or water to voters waiting in line and sets strict guidelines on the availability and location of polling stations. It also provides for two early voting Saturdays before the general elections. Before, only one day was needed.

Civil rights groups and activists have put pressure on some of Georgia’s largest corporations, including Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, to oppose the law. Coca and Delta did not openly oppose the legislation before it was passed, but their CEOs have since condemned the law.

After the bill was passed, pressure on companies began to increase after Merck CEO Ken Frazier and other black executives organized a public campaign to urge companies to resort to legislation. Many companies have adopted a broad stance in support of voting rights, but have tried to avoid taking specific positions on Georgia law.

It is not clear whether a negative reaction from the business community will change the outcome in Georgia, where the law was passed. Civil rights groups contested in court and President Joe Biden said the US Department of Justice would review the law, which he called “atrocity”.

Coca CEO James Quincey told CNBC on Wednesday that the company “always opposed this legislation” and called it “wrong”.

“Now that it’s over, we’re going out more publicly,” said Quincey.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said initially that the legislation “has improved considerably” and offered broad support for voting rights. He reversed the course on Wednesday in a memo to the employee, saying that the “final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values”. Delta is Georgia’s largest employer.

Bastian also destroyed the motivation of Republican lawmakers for the law, suggesting that “the whole justification for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread electoral fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections”.

In November, Biden became the first Democrat since 1992 to beat Georgia. Voters also elected two Democrats to the Senate, Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, in the second round of the January election. Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans falsely claimed that there was unbridled voter fraud in Georgia’s elections last year.

AT&T is headquartered in Texas, but has given money to Kemp’s campaign and co-sponsors the legislation. The company’s CEO, John Stankey, told CNBC in a statement:

“We understand that electoral laws are complicated, not the experience of our company and, ultimately, the responsibility of elected officials. But as a company, we have a responsibility to engage. For this reason, we are working together with other companies through groups such as the Business Roundtable to support efforts to increase the voting capacity of each person. “

In an interview on Wednesday at CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, Kemp rejected the corporate reaction to the state’s electoral legislation and said he was “happy to deal with it”. He added: “I would encourage these CEOs to look at other states where they are doing business and to compare the real facts with Georgia.”

Election rights activist and former Georgian government candidate Stacey Abrams this week asked critics not to boycott Georgia’s top companies for not opposing electoral law. Instead, Abrams said companies should have a chance to publicly oppose the law and support federal electoral law before being met with a boycott.

“Companies that were silent or gave petty responses during the debate were wrong,” Abrams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “What people want to know now is what is their position on this fundamental issue of voting rights.”

Some religious leaders in Georgia called for an April 7 boycott of Coca, Delta and Home Depot, according to AJC. However, religious leaders suggested that the boycott could be avoided if companies took additional positions, such as asking lawmakers in other states to withdraw legislative proposals that they said would restrict access to voting.

Although the Georgia law has been signed, electoral bills in several other states are beginning to be examined, mainly in Texas. In pressuring companies to speak out, Frazier of Merck said that Georgia is “the forefront of a movement across the country to restrict access to voting”.

There have been 361 bills in 47 states that include provisions that would restrict access to voting, starting March 24, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice.

The proposals in the United States state chambers come at a time when Democrats in Washington are seeking to promote legislation called the People’s Law. Proponents say that this would make registration and voting easier, while avoiding plastering and reforming campaign financing rules. Some Republicans who oppose the legislation say it would result in a federal overrun in state elections.

Last month, the US House passed its version of the People’s Act without a single Republican vote in favor. His future in the Senate is uncertain, as he needs at least 10 votes from the Republican Party to overcome an obstruction and move on to the final vote.

Powerful corporations in Texas are also targeting bills that voting rights advocates argue would make voting in Texas more difficult.

Senate Bill 7 was passed by the upper house of the state legislature on Thursday. In the Texas House of Representatives, another bill known as House Bill 6 is being considered.

American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, opposed Senate Bill 7 in a statement on Thursday. “To make American’s position clear: we strongly oppose this bill and the like,” said the airline.

Dell CEO Michael Dell – whose technology company is based near Austin, the state capital – wrote in a tweet that the company did not support House Bill 6.

“Free, fair and equitable access to voting is the basis of American democracy. These rights – especially for women, communities of color – were hard won, ”wrote Dell. “Governments must ensure that their voices are heard. HB6 does the opposite and we are opposed to that.”