A new Georgia voter integrity law that requires, among other things, voter ID on absentee ballots, has prompted talk that Major League Baseball and the Professional Golfers’ Association might cancel major events in the Peach State.
And at least one major Hollywood director said he now wants nothing to do with Georgia.
Specifically, activists reportedly want MLB to pull its scheduled All-Star Game out of Atlanta in July. They also reportedly want PGA officials to move its Masters Tournament out of Augusta next month, according to several reports, including one in The New York Post.
MLB and PGA officials did not return The Georgia Star News’ requests for comment Monday.
Members of the Washington, D.C.-based National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), in a press release, called on the PGA Tour and Masters Tournament to pull the upcoming championship event from the Augusta National Golf Course. NBJC also urged professional golfers to refuse to play in Georgia until the law is repealed.
David Johns is the NBJC’s executive director.
“Georgia’s new law restricting voting access is designed to turn back the clock on civil rights, and return black and poor and already disenfranchised voters in Georgia to second class citizens. This is an unacceptable attack on our democracy – and companies that operate in Georgia must speak out against this restrictive law,” Johns said in the press release.
“The PGA Tour and Masters Tournament have both made commitments to help diversify golf and address racial inequities in this country – and we expect them to not only speak out against Georgia’s new racist voter suppression law – but to also take action.”
Hollywood director James Mangold, who made movies including Ford v. Ferrari and Walk the Line, tweeted that he “will not direct a film in Georgia.”
“The state will be irredeemably red with these new ‘laws.’ The only reason studios shoot in GA is cause they have steal production from other states and workers w/cash,” Mangold tweeted.
Georgia Star News publisher John Fredericks on Monday opined about Hollywood’s and the MLB’s potential moves against the state.
“As an avid baseball fan, I haven’t watched an All-Star game in 30 years, so I couldn’t care less. As far as Hollywood elites, good riddance. This bill restored voter confidence of average working men and women of Georgia,” Fredericks said.
“If the Democrats have the votes, why do they need drop boxes with no chain of custody and mail out ballots with no verification? The deplorables backlash against these woke companies will be enormous.”
As The Star News reported Saturday, this new voter reform law also requires increased oversight of local election boards that fail to follow state election law. The law also mandates secured drop boxes around the clock.
As reported Monday, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel defended Georgia Senate Bill 202, which Democrats nationwide have described as a form of voter suppression. She said “Democrats are peddling a false narrative in order to dismantle our elections processes, and the Georgia election reforms expose that lie because the bill actually EXPANDS voting opportunities.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp addressed the matter last week.
The November 2020 election, according to Kemp, saw a 350 percent increase in the use of absentee balloting, more than 1.3 million absentee ballots total compared to election day in 2018.
“This obviously led to local election workers having to process far more ballots using a time-consuming, labor-intensive and at times arbitrary process,” Kemp said.
“By moving to a state-issued ID requirement instead of a signature match, Georgia will dramatically streamline the verification process on the absentee ballot.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
