A federal judge on Friday narrowed a section of Georgia election law that banned the practice of handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast ballots, as well as halted enforcement of a requirement that voters put their birth dates on the outer envelope of their ballots.
This is the deceit of these laws. They pretend to be about a genuine “problem”, giving a degree of plausibility, just like you are doing now. But we should not be fooled. The real motivation is to deter voting by non GOP groups.
In this case, consider which areas have long lines and which don’t. You’re not sure? Look at which areas have had the number of voting places reduced. Look at which groups find it difficult to vote during weekday working hours, and who is limiting weekend voting and early/late voting hours.
It’s always been illegal to campaign within X feet of a polling place. Banning water and snacks is irrelevant to that. You could never just set up campaigning tents anywhere you wanted. Was there really an epidemic of lawless tent-weilding water and snacks givers before this law? “How do you solve for that?” You don’t because it’s not a real problem, the law is simply designed to make it difficult to stay in line in mainly non GOP overloaded voting places, to make people give up and go home.