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Usually bustling with lawmakers and lobbyists, the hallways of the Georgia State Capitol on the first day of the 2021 session were largely quiet on the first day of the 2021 legislative session.Riley Bunch
ATLANTA â On the heels of a bitter election cycle, lawmakers are prepping for another heated battle that will determine political control for the next decade: redistricting.
A process that takes place once every 10 years, state lawmakers are tasked with redrawing legislative districts using the 2020 U.S. Census population data. But the event is famous for its political maneuvering where the majority party often draws new district lines that favor their candidates â a controversial strategy known as partisan gerrymandering.
April 14, 2021 - 4:30pm
By Don Wiener and Alex Kotch
State legislative leaders and members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are spearheading many of the GOP s efforts at voter suppression in the states, especially those that saw close 2020 presidential results. More than 360 bills have been introduced in 47 states to restrict voting access since the beginning of the year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks state legislation on voting and elections.
The Center for Media and Democracy has determined that more than 100 Republican politicians connected to ALEC in just six battleground states are lead sponsors or co-sponsors of those bills.
A major Apple Studios film telling the story of a man who escapes slavery that is set to be directed by Antoine Fuqua and star Will Smith will no longer film in Georgia as a result of a controversial voting bill that passed in the state last month. Emancipation is based on the life of an enslaved man named Peter who escapes from a plantation and joins the Union army. The film is the first production to leave the state as a result of its new law..
Jake Coyle
NEW YORK Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua have pulled production of their runaway slave drama “Emancipation” from Georgia over the state’s recently enacted law restricting voting access.
The film is the largest and most high profile Hollywood production to depart the state since Georgia’s Republican-controlled state Legislature passed a law that introduced stiffer voter identification requirements for absentee balloting, limited drop boxes and gave the State Election Board new powers to intervene in county election offices and to remove and replace local election officials. Opponents have said the law is designed to reduce the impact of minority voters.
MLB All-Star Game yanked from Georgia over voting law
By RONALD BLUMApril 3, 2021 GMT
NEW YORK (AP) Atlanta lost Major League Baseball’s summer All-Star Game on Friday over the league’s objections to sweeping changes to Georgia voting laws that critics including the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola have condemned as being too restrictive.
The decision to pull the July 13 game from Atlanta’s Truist Park amounts to the first economic backlash against Georgia for the voting law that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp quickly signed into law March 25.
Kemp has insisted the law’s critics have mischaracterized what it does, yet GOP lawmakers adopted the changes largely in response to false claims of fraud in the 2020 elections by former President Donald Trump and his supporters. The law includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.