FactChecking Claims About the Georgia Voting Law
A new voting law in Georgia has sparked a rebuke from Major League Baseball and political spin from both parties. We’ll fact-check claims from President Joe Biden and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
- Biden wrongly claimed the new Georgia law would “close a polling place at 5 o’clock when working people just get off.”
- Kemp misleadingly suggested the new law wouldn’t reduce the number of drop boxes available for absentee voters to drop off their ballots.
- Kemp inaccurately claimed that Biden is “factually wrong” about “the water issue” — a provision of the new law that bans “any person” from providing food or drink to people waiting in line to vote.
Kemp signed the Georgia legislation into law on March 25. It has garnered criticism from Democrats that the law limits access to voting, while Kemp has claimed the law “expands access to the polls and ensures the integrity of the ballot box.”
On April 2, Major League Baseball announced it wouldn’t hold the All-Star Game in Atlanta as scheduled because of its objection to the law. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said.
The law comes months after Democrats scored major political victories, with Biden winning the state in the presidential race and both Democratic Senate candidates securing their runoff elections to give the party control of both houses of Congress.
