U.S. corporations face growing pressure and threats of boycotts to publicly oppose Republican-backed election legislation in Georgia and other states that critics say harm the voting rights of Black Americans, CNBC reported.
The opposition intensified on Friday when Major League Baseball announced it would no longer hold the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta this summer, with commissioner Robert Manfred saying the league “fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last week signed an election overhaul bill into law that adds new identification requirements for absentee voting while giving the state legislature increased oversight on how elections are run.
The legislation prohibits third-party groups from giving food or water to voters who are waiting in line and places strict guidelines on the availability and location of ballot drop boxes. It also mandates two Saturdays of early voting leading up to general elections. Only one day was previously required.
Civil rights groups and activists have pressured some of Georgia’s biggest corporations, including Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, to oppose the law. Coke and Delta did not vocally oppose the legislation prior to its passage, but their CEOs have since condemned the law.
Following the bill’s passage, pressure on companies started to increase after Merck CEO Ken Frazier and other Black executives organized a public campaign to urge firms to call out the legislation. Many companies had taken broad stances in support of voting rights but sought to avoid taking specific positions on the Georgia law.
It’s unclear whether a business community backlash will change the outcome in Georgia, where the law has been passed. Civil rights groups have challenged it in court and President Joe Biden said the U.S. Justice Department would examine the law, which he called an “atrocity.”
Coke CEO James Quincey told CNBC on Wednesday the company had “always opposed this legislation” and called it “wrong.”
“Now that it’s passed, we’re coming out more publicly,” Quincey said.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian initially said the legislation had “improved considerably” and offered broad support for voting rights. He reversed course Wednesday in a memo to employee, saying the “final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values.” Delta is Georgia’s largest employer.
Bastian also ripped Republican lawmakers’ motivation for the law, suggesting the “entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections.”
In November, Biden became the first Democrat since 1992 to win Georgia. Voters also elected two Democrats to the Senate, Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, in runoff elections in January. Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have falsely claimed there was rampant voter fraud in Georgia’s elections last year.
AT&T is based in Texas but gave money to Kemp’s campaign and cosponsors of the legislation. The company’s CEO John Stankey told CNBC in a statement:
“We understand that election laws are complicated, not our company’s expertise 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 businesses through groups like the Business Roundtable to support efforts to enhance every person’s ability to vote.”
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