Republican Sen. John Kennedy was hoping for a gotcha moment during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on voting rights when he asked former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams for examples of how the new Georgia election bill signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp was “racist.”
It blew up in Kennedy’s face as Abrams came prepared and ended up going viral for her response.
Kennedy asked Abrams to “give” him a “list of the provisions that you object to.”
“It shortens the federal run-off period from nine weeks to four weeks. It restricts the time a voter can request and return an absentee ballot application,” Abrams answered, adding that the bill also requires voters to present an ID when participating in absentee voting.
“What’s else?” Kennedy asked.
Abrams easily rattled off some other provisions in the bill that she disagrees with including limits on the number of ballot drop box locations and its ban on “nearly all-out-of precinct votes.”
“OK. What else? Is that everything?” Kennedy asked again.
But, Abrams was not finished she pointed out that the new bill “may have an effect on voters who cannot vote during business hours,” because of a shortened voting window and was prepared to list another provision of the bill when Kennedy interrupted her saying he “get the idea.”
