Ga. students take to streets to protest 'dehumanizing' voting law that criminalizes handing out water
ATLANTA — In the latest public rebuke of Georgia’s controversial 2021 voting law, dozens of Black students and activists marched through the heart of historic Morehouse College on Saturday in an effort to push back on what they call “anti-voting” measures in Georgia and other states.
ATLANTA — In the latest public rebuke of Georgia’s controversial 2021 voting law, dozens of Black students and activists marched through the heart of historic Morehouse College on Saturday in an effort to push back on what they call “anti-voting” measures in Georgia and other states.
Since 2021, SB 202 — also known as the Election Integrity Act — has made it illegal in Georgia for anyone to hand a hot or thirsty person a bottle of water while standing in line to vote. Those participating at Saturday’s rally cited SB 202 as one of many “inhumane laws that attempt to suppress the vote for Black and brown people,” said Nicole Carty, the executive director of Get Free, a Gen Z- and millennial-led movement that focuses on social justice.
“It is so visibly dehumanizing to actually criminalize such an act of humanity and dignity,” she said. “It really exemplifies the broader inhumanity and inequality of all these voter laws that are happening.”
Carty added: “It’s not just about not being able to hand out water. Many of the most insidious components of these anti-voter laws are deep in the bureaucracy and Jim Crow. So, we’re using it to shine a light on what is dehumanizing about these laws.”
SB 202 is a 98-page series of election measures that bar officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, minimize the use of ballot drop boxes, allow for purging registered voters from voting lists and prohibit handing out food or water to voters within 150 feet of a polling place or within 25 feet of a voter standing in line, among other restrictions. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
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