ATLANTA 鈥� Liberal activists are stepping up calls for corporate America to denounce Republican efforts to tighten state voting laws, and businesses accustomed to cozy political relationships now find themselves in the middle of a growing partisan fight over voting rights.
Pressure is mounting on leading companies in Texas, Arizona and other states, particularly after Major League Baseball鈥檚 decision Friday to move the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta. A joint statement from executives at nearly 200 companies, including HP, Microsoft, PayPal, Target, Twitter, Uber and Under Armour, took aim at state legislation 鈥渢hreatening to make voting more difficult" and said 鈥渆lections are not improved鈥� when lawmakers impose new barriers to voting.
The outcry comes a week after Georgia Republicans enacted an overhaul of the state's election law that critics argue is an attempt to suppress Democratic votes.
Other companies have, somewhat belatedly, joined the chorus of critics.
Delta Air Lines and The Coca-Cola Co., two of Georgia鈥檚 best-known brands, this past week called the new law 鈥渦nacceptable," although they had a hand in writing it. That only angered Republicans, including Gov. Brian Kemp and several U.S. senators, who accused the companies of cowering from unwarranted attacks from the left.
The fight has thrust corporate America into a place it often tries to avoid 鈥� the
鈥淲e want to hold corporations accountable for how they show up when voting rights are under attack,鈥� said Marc Banks, an NAACP spokesman. 鈥淐orporations have a part to play, because when they do show up and speak, people listen.鈥�
Kemp said at a news conference Saturday that baseball 鈥渃aved to fear and lies from liberal activists鈥� and moving the game means 鈥漜ancel culture鈥� is coming for American businesses. Kemp said state leaders worked in good faith with leaders in the business community on the legislation, including some of the same companies that have now 鈥渇lip-flopped on this issue.鈥� He added: 鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 apologize for making it easy to vote and hard to cheat."
Civil rights groups have sued to block the new Georgia law, which was passed after Democrats flipped the once-reliably Republican state in an election that Donald Trump falsely claimed was rife with fraud. Some activists have called for consumer boycotts of Delta, Coca-Cola and others. They dismiss business leaders鈥� assertions that they helped water down the bill to ease earlier, more restrictive proposals; those leaders, they argue, should have tried to block the plan altogether.
In Texas, the NAACP, League of Women Voters and League of United Latin American Citizens, among other organizations, are urging corporations in the state to speak out against a slate of Republican-backed voting proposals. 鈥淒emocracy is good for business,鈥� the campaign says.
Nine organizations took out full-page ads in The Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News, the state鈥檚 leading newspapers, urging corporate opposition to the plan. The Texas proposal would limit some early voting hours, bar counties from setting up drive-thru voting and prohibit local officials from proactively sending applications for mail ballots before voters request them.
Unlike their Georgia-based counterparts, American Airlines and Dell Technologies didn鈥檛 wait for the Texas measure to pass. 鈥淭o make American鈥檚 stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it,鈥� American said in a statement.
Arizona, which Biden flipped from Trump in November, hasn鈥檛 seen high-profile corporate players engage yet. But 30-plus groups sent a joint letter to Allstate Insurance, CVS Health and Farmers鈥� Insurance, among others, urging their public opposition to proposed voting restrictions. Emily Kirkland, executive director of Progress Arizona, a progressive group that signed the letter, said there's been no response yet.
Other groups are demanding that corporations focus on Washington, where congressional Democrats are pushing measures intended to make it easier for Americans to vote, regardless of state laws. Among the changes, Democrats would enact automatic voter registration nationally and standardize access to early and mail voting.
Democrats also want to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that require the federal government to approve all election procedures in states and locales with a history of discrimination. The Supreme Court struck down those provisions, which applied to Georgia and Arizona, among other states, in 2013.
Corporate giants were mostly quiet when Trump falsely claimed he lost because of fraud. Business leaders largely maintained that caution as Republican state lawmakers used Trump's lie to justify a flood of new bills to make it more cumbersome to vote.
The reticence was a stark contrast to how chambers of commerce reacted six years ago when Republican-run states pushed 鈥渞eligious freedom鈥� measures. Indiana, under then-Gov. Mike Pence, the future
Then, Georgia鈥檚 corporate lobbying groups 鈥� with Delta鈥檚 and Coca-Cola鈥檚 backing 鈥� took no such chances, speaking out forcefully against Georgia conservatives' version of a 鈥渞eligious freedom鈥� bill. Lawmakers passed it anyway but Kemp鈥檚 predecessor, Republican Nathan Deal, vetoed it amid the chamber outcry.
Today, Delta and Coca-Cola's response to the Georgia voting fight is standing as a cautionary tale for other businesses.
Ed Bastian, the airline鈥檚 chief executive, initially released a statement noting the business lobby鈥檚 role in altering the bill as it moved through the General Assembly. Officials at the Atlanta Metro Chamber, where Bastian currently serves as president, detailed how corporate lobbyists spent weeks at the Capitol on mitigating provisions.
Some Georgia Republicans wanted to roll back the state鈥檚 no-excuse absentee voting law, end automatic voter registration and ban Sunday early voting used heavily by Black churches. They also wanted to require photocopies of state IDs to receive and submit absentee ballots, while banning 鈥渄rop boxes鈥� as ballot collection receptacles.
The final law preserved no-excuse absentee voting and automatic registration. The new ID requirement for absentee ballots allows a voter to write their state ID number, rather than produce a photocopy, and the legislature included funding for free state IDs. The law also codifies in-person early voting on weekends, although it allows counties to choose whether to be open for voting for up to two Sundays. And it made drop boxes of mail ballots a permanent fixture in Georgia, but limited the number.
Business leaders鈥� philosophy, according to Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, was 鈥渂asically, Republicans are going to pass something, so they might as well try to keep from being awful.鈥�
But by Wednesday, the same day 72 Black business executives published a letter in The New York Times urging corporate leaders to speak out, Bastian was more direct. He sent a companywide memo declaring the law 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� and 鈥渂ased on a lie鈥� 鈥� though he didn鈥檛 mention Trump.
Big business鈥檚 mistake, Jordan said, was 鈥渢hinking there was ever any version that wouldn鈥檛 end up like this.鈥�
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Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas; Acacia Coronado and Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
