Attorney for lawmaker calls 2 felony charges ‘overreach’
ATLANTA — An attorney for a Georgia lawmaker who was charged with two felonies after knocking on the door to the governor’s private office said authorities overreached in the case, which unfolded while the governor spoke on live television about a sweeping overhaul of state elections.
State police arrested state Rep. Park Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat, on Thursday after she said she wanted to witness Republican Gov. Brian Kemp sign the law that places restrictions on voting by mail and gives lawmakers more power to oversee elections.
Cannon was charged with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly. She was released from jail late Thursday.
state police spokesman said Cannon knocked on the door to the public lobby of the governor’s office, and then shifted to knocking on a door to a private area.
“She was advised that she was disturbing what was going on inside and if she did not stop, she would be placed under arrest,” Lt.
W. Mark Riley wrote in a statement.
Kemp signed the bill before he began speaking. He interrupted his televised remarks while Cannon was knocking and later resumed the speech.
“This was a law enforcement overreach on all the charges, and my hope is that after examining the file, the district attorney will dismiss the charges,” Cannon’s lawyer, Gerald Griggs, said Friday.
Griggs questioned whether felony charges, with mandatory prison terms, were merited.
The new law requires a photo identification to vote absentee by mail. It also shortens how long voters have to request an absentee ballot and limits where ballot drop boxes can be placed and when they can be used. Republicans said Georgia needed to restore the confidence of voters who believed President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud. They also noted that the law increases the number of in-person early voting days on weekends.
“We’re expanding the right to vote in Georgia,” Kemp said Thursday.
Democrats say thelawisa power grab by Republicans who are threatened by Joe Biden’s presidential victory in Georgia in November and the twin Democratic victories of U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff in January.
President Joe Biden criticized the law again Friday, saying its Republican sponsors were trying “to deny people the right to vote” and that the measure was “a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.”
Biden renewed his call for Congress to pass nationwide voting standards that would include automatic voter registration nationwide. Such a bill passed the Democratic-controlled House this month but faces opposition from Republicans who call it a federal takeover. It would give states money to track absentee ballots.