When Republican-led Georgia banned giving food and water to people waiting in line to vote in 2021, President Joe Biden called it “Jim Crow in the 21st century,” even though the law’s supporters noted that Democratic New York had long had the same ban on its books.
(Bloomberg) — When Republican-led Georgia banned giving food and water to people waiting in line to vote in 2021, President Joe Biden called it “Jim Crow in the 21st century,” even though the law’s supporters noted that Democratic New York had long had the same ban on its books.
Now some New York politicians want the rare similarity between the states to end.
A state Senate bill would allow groups to give “snacks, water, soft drinks, or other refreshments” of a “nominal value” to voters in line. In a one-two punch, the Brooklyn NAACP is seeking to overturn the ban in federal court.
The proposal is part of a wave of legislation in Democratic-led states to make voting easier in response to Republican attempts to restrict access to the polls, and attacks by Donald Trump and his supporters on recent election losses.
There’s little research to support the idea that so-called line-warming bans have much effect on voting, but they make for a stark visual image among Democrats seeking to criticize the Republican bills.
In a 2020 speech at the Democratic National Convention, former first lady Michelle Obama said voters should “pack a brown-bag dinner and maybe breakfast too” to stand in line to vote.
The bans and other anti-electioneering laws were originally written to combat the once-pervasive, colonial-era tactic of plying voters with food and alcohol on Election Day. But voting rights advocates say they go too far, making it impossible to simply aid voters stuck in a long line.
New York Senator Zellnor Myrie, the bill’s sponsor, said voters can lose their place in line if they leave to get a “simple glass of water.”
“In New York State, despite continued progress on making our elections more accessible, certain polling locations continue to have massive lines,” he said in a statement. “Voting should not be an endurance test and allowing organizations to provide nominal refreshments will help protect their franchise until voting is no longer a burden.”
In a federal lawsuit, the Brooklyn branch of the NAACP argues that the ban violates their freedom of speech.
Attorney Abha Khanna, a partner with the Elias Law Group working on the lawsuit, said even if the legislature overturned the ban on handing out food and drink, other New York laws would bar groups like the NAACP from identifying themselves when handing it out. She said that limits the NAACP’s right to express its support of voting.
“By providing refreshments, they are expressing support and celebration of voting, particularly those who endured a lot to be able to exercise that right,” she said.
Record turnout in recent elections have led to a renewed focus on providing food and water in recent elections. In 2016, a nonpartisan group called Pizza to the Polls formed to hand out slices to people waiting in line, giving out more than 4,500 pizzas by the 2022 election.
Matthew Weil, executive director of the democracy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, said that instead of banning line-warming, lawmakers should focus on reducing lines to vote by expanding early in-person voting and mail-in ballots and creating larger regional voting centers where anyone can cast a ballot.
“If we don’t have lines, then we won’t have any problem,” he said.
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