Voting rights groups are turning up the heat on a number of Georgia-based companies, including Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, and Delta Air Lines, to come out against GOP-led efforts to restrict voting access in the state.

What You Need To Know

  • Voting rights groups are lobbying Georgia-based companies to come out against GOP-led efforts to restrict voting access in the state

  • Georgia’s Senate last week passed a sweeping bill that would repeal no-excuse absentee voting, which 1.3 million Georgians used to vote in the presidential election; The week prior, the Georgia House passed their own version of the bill

  • Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, Aflac, and Delta Air Lines have issued statements in support of free and fair elections

  • Georgia, which had not picked a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992, went for Biden by nearly 12,000 votes in November 2020, then sent Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock to the Senate in runoff elections two months later, the first all-Democrat Senate delegation from the Peach State in decades

Georgia’s Senate last week passed a sweeping bill that would repeal no-excuse absentee voting, which 1.3 million Georgians used to vote in the presidential election. The week prior, the Georgia House passed their own version of the bill. 

The move comes as a number of GOP-controlled state legislatures are backing bills aiming to restrict voting rights after the former president’s rampant false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as of Feb. 19, 2021, state lawmakers have introduced 253 bills in 43 states that would restrict voting access; lawmakers in 43 states have introduced 704 bills with provisions that would expand voting access.

Advocates are pressuring some of the state’s largest companies to speak out against these measures, which they claim would suppress the right to vote and specifically target votes of color.

A number of Georgia’s largest corporations expressed their support for free and fair elections in statements issued to CNBC.

Coca-Cola said in a statement that “voting is a foundational right in America, and we will continue to work to advance voting rights and access in Georgia and across the country.”

“Ensuring an election system that promotes broad voter participation, equal access to the polls, and fair, secure elections processes are critical to voter confidence and creates an environment that ensures everyone’s vote is counted,” Delta Air Lines said in a statement.

“We believe that all elections should be accessible, fair and secure and support broad voter participation,” retailer Home Depot said in a statement. “We’ll continue to work to ensure our associates, both in Georgia and across the country, have the information and resources to vote.”

The companies endorsed pushes for fairness and election integrity and committed to work with the Georgia House and Senate, and other groups such as the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to help reform the bills.

Georgia’s Chamber of Commerce issued a statement in support of accessible voting and voting rights, expressing “concern and opposition” to provisions found in both bills: “Simply put, we believe that it should be easy to vote, hard to commit fraud, and that Georgians should have faith and confidence in secure, accessible, and fair elections.”

“Broad voter participation, equal access to the polls, and fair, secure elections processes are critical to voter confidence and contribute to a business environment that fosters growth and vitality,” Dave Williams, the SVP Public Policy of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, said in a statement, adding: “Repealing no-excuse absentee voting does little to make the process more secure, and does so at great risk to participation.”

Citing a campaign during the 2020 election in which they encouraged employees to vote, UPS said that the shipping and logistics company “believes in the importance of the democratic process and supports facilitating the ability of all eligible voters to exercise their civic duty. We are committed to voter awareness and engagement.”

“The right to vote in national, state and local elections is the cornerstone of democracy,” insurance giant Aflac said in a statement. “We need to join together to ensure accessible and secure voting while preserving election integrity and transparency.”

Georgia, which had not picked a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992, went for Biden by nearly 12,000 votes in November 2020, then sent Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock to the Senate in runoff elections two months later, the first all-Democrat Senate delegation from the Peach State in decades.

One of the state’s most prominent voting rights advocates, former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, called the efforts “racist” and “a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie” this week.

“We know that the only thing that precipitated these charges – it's not that there was a question of security. In fact, the secretary and the governor went to great pains to assure America that Georgia elections were secure,” Abrams told CNN Sunday. “And so the only connection that we can find is that more people of color voted and it changed the outcome of elections in the direction Republicans do not like.”

Georgia, which had not picked a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992, went for Biden by nearly 12,000 votes in November 2020, then sent Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock to the Senate in runoff elections two months later, the first all-Democrat Senate delegation from the Peach State in decades.