Tuesday 25 October 2022 11:16 PM Karine Jean-Pierre defends Biden claims Georgia voting laws are 'Jim Crow' trends now
The White House on Tuesday argued that high voter turn out and voter suppression can happen at the same time, defending President Joe Biden's criticism of Georgia's voting law.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the record turn out of early voters in Georgia, a state President Joe Biden claimed had a 'Jim Crow'-style system of voting.
'High turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,' she said at her press briefing.
She pointed out that President Biden was referring to the a slew of voting laws passed after Donald Trump's false claim he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election and was the victim of voting fraud.
Republican-controlled states enacted stricter voting measures in the wake of that election. Many states had expanded absentee and mail-in voting in 2020 because of the covid pandemic.
In 2022, at least seven states enacted 10 laws that make voting more difficult – of these, five laws in five states are in place for the midterms, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
'The president has been very clear that based on The Big Lie, there have been a host of anti voter policies for some states that challenge Americans fundamental right to vote,' Jean-Pierre said. 'This is against our most basic values.'
'Of course, high turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,' she added. 'One doesn't have to happen on its own. It can happen at the same time.'
She declined to get into more specific details, citing the Hatch Act, a federal law forbidding federal employees from engaging in political activity on the job.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the record turn out of early voters in Georgia, a state President Joe Biden claimed had a 'Jim Crow'-style voting law: 'High turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,' she said
Citizens cast their votes for the November midterm elections at early voting locations in Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia, this week
In March 2021, Biden called Georgia's newly-enacted voting law 'Jim Crow in the 21st Century' and 'an atrocity.'
Biden won Georgia in 2020 and Trump is under investigation in the state over allegations he and his allies pressured state officials to overturn the results in the presidential contest.
Georgia's new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water and gives state officials more power over local elections.
It is in affect for the November 8th election that will decide control of Congress. The state also will select a new governor on that date.
Through Sunday, about 838,000 Georgians had cast their ballots, most of them in person at advance voting sites, the rest returning mail ballots.
That's almost 60% higher than advance voting totals at this point in 2018, the last midterm election.
More than 10% of Georgia's registered voters have already cast votes, a share that trails only Massachusetts and Vermont, where 22% and 16% of voters have sent in ballots, according to an Associated Press analysis of data collected by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald.
California and Florida have each accepted more than 1 million mail ballots thus far. And the numbers nationwide are likely to accelerate this week as more states open early in-person polling places or send ballots to voters.
'We're seeing very robust numbers of people who are voting early, so at this point we'd have to see turnout crater before election day for the trajectory we're on to change,' McDonald said.
Georgia enacted a new voting law after the 2020 election, President Joe Biden called it a 'Jim Crow' style law
Young people pass a voting information sign on the Emory University campus in Atlanta, Georgia
Republicans have seized on the Georgia numbers as
