San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

Pressure builds on corporatio­ns to shun GOP bills

- By Bill Barrow Bill Barrow is an Associated Press writer.

ATLANTA — Liberal activists are stepping up calls for corporate America to denounce Republican efforts to tighten state voting laws, and businesses accustomed to cozy political relationsh­ips now find themselves in the middle of a growing partisan fight over voting rights.

Pressure is mounting on leading companies in Texas, Arizona and other states, particular­ly after Major League Baseball’s decision Friday to move the 2021 AllStar Game out of Atlanta. A joint statement from executives at nearly 200 companies, including HP, Microsoft, PayPal, Target, Twitter, Uber and Under Armour, took aim at state legislatio­n “threatenin­g to make voting more difficult” and said “elections are not improved” when lawmakers impose new barriers to voting. The outcry comes a week after Georgia Republican­s enacted an overhaul of the state’s election law that critics argue is an attempt to suppress Democratic votes.

Other companies have, somewhat belatedly, joined the chorus of critics.

Delta Air Lines and The CocaCola Co., two of Georgia’s bestknown brands, this past week called the new law “unacceptab­le,” although they had a hand in writing it. That only angered Republican­s, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and several U.S. senators, who accused the companies of yielding to unwarrante­d attacks from the left.

The fight has thrust corporate America into a place it often tries to avoid — the center of a partisan political fight. But under threat of boycott and bad publicity, business leaders are showing a new willingnes­s to enter the fray on an issue not directly related to their bottom line, even if it means alienating Republican allies.

“We want to hold corporatio­ns accountabl­e for how they show up when voting rights are under attack,” said Marc Banks, an NAACP spokesman. “Corporatio­ns have a part to play, because when they do show up and speak, people listen.”

Civil rights groups have sued to block the new Georgia law, which was passed after Democratic victories in the oncereliab­ly Republican state in an election that Donald Trump falsely claimed was rife with fraud. Some activists have called for consumer boycotts of Delta, CocaCola and others. They dismiss business leaders’ assertions that they helped water down the bill to ease earlier, more restrictiv­e proposals; those leaders, they argue, should have tried to block the plan altogether.

In Texas, the NAACP, League of Women Voters and League of United Latin American Citizens, among other organizati­ons, are urging corporatio­ns in the state to speak out against a slate of Republican­backed voting proposals. “Democracy is good for business,” the campaign says.

Nine organizati­ons took out fullpage ads in The Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News, the state’s leading newspapers, urging corporate opposition to the plan. The Texas proposal would limit some early voting hours, bar counties from setting up drivethrou­gh voting and prohibit local officials from proactivel­y sending applicatio­ns for mail ballots before voters request them.

Unlike their Georgiabas­ed counterpar­ts, American Airlines and Dell Technologi­es didn’t wait for the Texas measure to pass. “To make American’s stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it,” American said in a statement.

Other groups are demanding that corporatio­ns focus on Washington, where congressio­nal Democrats are pushing measures intended to make it easier for Americans to vote, regardless of state laws. Among the changes, Democrats would enact automatic voter registrati­on nationally and standardiz­e access to early and mail voting.

Democrats also want to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that require the federal government to approve all election procedures in states and locales with a history of discrimina­tion.

 ?? Jeff Amy / Associated Press ?? African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Reginald Jackson protests restrictiv­e voting measures last month in Atlanta.
Jeff Amy / Associated Press African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Reginald Jackson protests restrictiv­e voting measures last month in Atlanta.

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