Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-Ga.) signed an executive order on Tuesday authorizing the city’s “Chief Equity Officer” to pursue measures that would “mitigate the impact” of the new election integrity law that had been passed by the state government, according to CNN.
The executive order is actually mostly symbolic, as the local government of Atlanta has no authority to actually resist the law itself or refuse to implement its requirements. But instead, it will direct the chief equity officer to increase “voter education” and staff training efforts to better teach the city’s residents about what the law means, how to comply with it, and how to obtain proper photo ID as required by the law.
In a statement regarding the executive order, Bottoms claimed that the order “is designed to do what those in the majority of the state legislature did not – expand access to our right to vote.” Bottoms provided no evidence to back up her claim that the law in any way suppresses the right to vote in Georgia.
The new law, passed in the wake of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia and many other key swing states, includes numerous restrictions on shady voting practices and strengthening of election integrity. Among the major provisions are the requirement of submitting a form of photo ID when applying for a mail-in ballot, lowering the number of ballot drop-boxes in the state, and reducing the length of runoff elections from nine weeks to just four weeks, among others.
The law has been baselessly accused of suppressing minorities’ right to vote, and has been criticized by Democrats, the media, and several major corporations. Major League Baseball (MLB) pulled its planned all-star game from Atlanta out of protest of the new law, instead relocating the game to Denver, Colorado, while other CEOs who have criticized the law include the heads of Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines. Nevertheless, other states such as Arizona, Texas, and Florida are considering similar measures to crack down on voter fraud, following in Georgia’s footsteps.