(The Center Square) — Several voting groups filed an emergency preliminary injunction motion, hoping to lift Georgia’s voting law’s “line relief” provision.
Critics want a federal judge to halt a provision of Senate Bill 202, the Election Integrity Act, that bars volunteers from handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots. If granted, volunteers could give food and water to voters in lines stretching 150 feet from the polling place.
“The cruel barriers to voting enacted by SB 202 target both the basic needs and basic rights of Georgians,” Poy Winichakul, senior staff attorney for voting rights for the Southern Poverty Law Center , said in a statement.
“There can be no reason for denying food or water to people waiting in long polling lines, other than trying to prevent them from exercising their freedom to vote,” Winichakul added. “These barriers to voting must be removed so all Georgians can have a voice to advocate for their communities in the crucial 2024 elections.”
The SPLC, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the Legal Defense Fund, WilmerHale and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP filed the motion on behalf of a group of plaintiffs, which include the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Georgia ADAPT and the Georgia Advocacy Office.
Spokesmen for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, declined to comment.
NEW: Georgia’s ban on providing food & water to voters waiting in long lines to vote violates our clients’ 1A right to communicate, thru action, that voting is vital & voters’ persistence celebrated. That’s why we’re asking the court to block the ban for the 2024 elections. @ACLU https://t.co/0ssOusYYrG
— Sophia Lin Lakin (@sophlin229) April 24, 2023
By T.A. DeFeo | The Center Square contributor
