Georgians Should Take Note as Raphael Warnock Tries Sabotaging Another State Over Its Voting Laws

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock was one of a number of prominent Democrats who made false statements concerning Georgia’s new voting law.

Warnock, along with failed 2018 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and President Biden, labeled the bill an updated version of the repressive Jim Crow laws that were implemented by Southern Democrats post-Civil War.

Anyone with even a passing familiarity of the Jim Crow era understood how outrageous the claims were. Those “laws” were put in place to keep black people segregated from whites, to suppress the black vote, and to stifle economic and educational opportunities for black citizens. Black Americans faced criminal charges, jail time, violence, and death as these laws were enforced – and sometimes by lynch mobs – for a period of roughly 100 years.

So no, the 2021 Georgia voting law was not “Jim Crow 2.0” in any way, shape, or form. Regardless of those inconvenient facts, the comments were made and as a result, Major League Baseball pulled their All-Star game from Georgia, which meant a projected $100 million in revenue went with it.

Unfortunately Warnock is now spreading falsehoods about another state’s voting laws because apparently sabotaging his own state wasn’t enough:

Arizona just passed a law that could kick 125,000 people off of the PERMANENT Early Voting List.

We’re seeing a nationwide effort to subvert our democracy. We have to pass the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) May 12, 2021

Except what did Warnock leave out about the Arizona law? Vital context that proves the law is much less ominous than he made it out to be:

Under the old law, voters on the permanent list automatically received a mail ballot for every election. The new law changes the name of the “permanent early voting list” to “active early voting list” and will remove voters from the list if they do not vote early at least once in a primary, general or municipal election during two consecutive election cycles. Election officials are to send voters a notice that they are going to be removed from the list, and voters will have 90 days to respond if they would like to remain on the list. It does not prevent people from voting in person and the voter remains registered.

Former NRSC advisor Matt Whitlock also pushed back on Warnock:

Updating voter rolls is OVERWHELMINGLY popular — because it's common sense.

📊59% of voters believe states should be REQUIRED to remove people who have moved or died from voter lists

📊Only 17% disagreehttps://t.co/y2iM8i3rJ1

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) May 12, 2021

Here’s the full text of the bill Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law yesterday.

In light of his attack on Arizona, I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone – Georgia voters, especially – of Warnock’s office’s admission last month that his criticism of the Georgia bill was based on a draft version of it that did not become law. In other words, the Senator condemned a law that he had not even read and in the process, he hurt the state and voters whose interests he was elected to represent in the U.S. Senate.

Fortunately, because Warnock was elected to fill a seat vacated by a retiring Senator (which was temporarily held by Republican Kelly Loeffler), he will be up for reelection next year. This guy has already cost his state so much and he’s barely been in office for 5 months, and now he’s trying to hurt another one by spreading more falsehoods.

Georgia voters need to give Warnock his walking papers when it comes time to make their voices heard in his upcoming Senate reelection race instead of giving him another six years to inflict more lasting damage on his state – and others.