Washington Post admits 'voting is surging in Georgia' despite previous reports, claims about voter suppression
The Post's editorial board previously claimed that the law made voting 'harder'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Washington Post admitted over the weekend that the number of Georgians turning out to vote in this year's midterm election primaries was "surging," despite its previous reporting and claims that the state's new law aimed at election integrity would lead to voter suppression.
In a Saturday piece headlined, "Voting is surging in Georgia despite controversial new election law," The Post reported that early voting in Georgia was seeing its largest turnout ever, laying waste to its own claims, as well as those of Democrats and other left-wing figures, that the law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in March 2021, amounted to Republican attempts to make it harder for people to vote.
"After three weeks of early voting ahead of Tuesday's primary, record-breaking turnout is undercutting predictions that the Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021 would lead to a fall off in voting," reporters Amy Gardner and Matthew Brown wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They noted that early in-person voting was more than three times what it was in the 2018 midterm elections, and higher than what it was in 2020, a presidential election year.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock arrives at a polling station in Atlanta, Georgia, May 6, 2022. (Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage)
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They also detailed an interaction with a Black voter at one polling location who expressed surprise over how easy it was to cast a ballot despite hearing about reports of voter suppression.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"To go in there and vote as easily as I did and to be treated with the respect that I knew I deserved as an American citizen — I was really thrown back," the voter told The Post.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on voting rights on the grounds of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, Jan. 11, 2022. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)
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Gardner and Brown's reporting ran in stark contrast to The Post's previous reporting that Georgia's new voting law would lead to fewer people being allowed to vote, and that it would make it harder for non-White voters to cast their ballots.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"A close examination of the language in the law shows it does contain new restrictions on voting; some are likely to make it disproportionately more difficult for poorer voters and voters of color to cast their ballots," The Post's senior political producer, Peter Stevenson wrote in an April 2021 piece.
The Post's editorial board claimed in an April 2021 editorial that the law made voting "harder," and railed against its provisions that it argued were "anti-democratic."
"The law on the whole makes voting needlessly harder, and with no sound policy rationale," it wrote. "Republicans are twisting the rules to discourage Democratic voters from casting ballots."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Republicans in many states, including Georgia, have adopted a different strategy: Make it harder to vote. No, that is not a full return to Jim Crow. But it shows a toxic hostility to democracy that no Republican can take pride in," it added.
Stacey Abrams, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, during a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 14, 2022. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Many Democrats, including Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and President Biden, also blasted the bill as legislation intended to suppress the votes of minorities.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Abrams described it as "a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie," while Biden referred to it as "Jim Crow in the 21st Century."