Bowdoin College students who attended a recent discussion on the state of American democracy with Sen. Susan Collins said Maine’s senior senator offered qualified praise for Georgia’s new voting law, which critics say harkens back to tactics used during the Jim Crow era to disenfranchise Black voters.
Collins made the remarks during an April 13 online event hosted by Bowdoin College. It was part of the private liberal arts school’s “After the Insurrection: Conversations on Democracy” series. Collins was invited to speak about “The State of Our Democracy and Political System” in a talk moderated by Bowdoin President Clayton Rose.
No recording of the discussion has been published, although videos of other discussions in the series have been posted to YouTube. Beacon requested the video from Rose’s office, but it was not provided.
“She said that the law actually makes it easier to vote because it allows for early voting and that she does not see any major issues with the law,” said Bowdoin freshman Jon Sides.
Two other students who attended the virtual talk confirmed Side’s recollection of Collins’ remarks.
“She said that she just had no issues with it, that it was up to the states to decide what voter restriction should be and if anybody had an issue with it, they could just file a lawsuit,” said Robyn Walker-Spencer, a first-year pre-med student.
“The senator said the bill that actually passed is better than the one that was originally proposed, which she thought was a bit too restrictive,” said Philip al Mutawaly, president of the class of 2024.
Collins’ spokesperson did not respond to Beacon’s request to clarify the senator’s comments at the Bowdoin event.
Democrats decry Georgia law as ‘Jim Crow in a suit and tie’
Collins’ remarks echo justifications used by some Georgia Republicans, including the state’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who claim the state’s new law actually expands voting access rather than restricts it.
“While weekend early voting expanded under the law, the overall period of early voting was contracted,” The Intercept reported after the bill was passed by the Georgia legislature. “Absentee ballots will only be able to be dropped off during regular business hours at early voting locations. Coupled with strict legal limits on who can drop off a ballot, it effectively makes the use of the drop boxes impossible for people who work nontraditional hours.”
A disproportionate number of people who work nontraditional hours in Georgia are people of color.
The Georgia law also adds an ID requirement to absentee ballots and it narrows the time window during which ballots can be requested. It also places some limits on the use of drop boxes in the state.
The law has also drawn condemnation for making it a felony to give food and water to people standing in line to vote.
Perhaps most egregiously, the law strips power from elected representatives whose job it is to oversee elections — such as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused Trump’s appeals to overturn the election results — and gives it to the state legislature. The law grants power to the State Election Board to remove local election board officials for violations, replacing them with a state-appointed superintendent.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams has called the law “Jim Crow in a suit and tie.”
Georgia’s law drew swift backlash from many corners, including the corporate sector, with Major League Baseball announcing it would move its All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in protest. Black church leaders threatened to boycott corporations that didn’t condemn the law.
Reporting shows that many corporate leaders, including the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, were working behind the scenes to temper the bill’s most blatant attacks on Black voters, such as restricting voting on Sundays when Black congregations often organize “Souls to the Polls” events.
Bowdoin students said Collins also thought such proposals by Georgia Republicans went too far.
“She disagreed with several early drafts of the bill, but those bad changes were removed, so the bill is good now,” Sides said.
To counter a wave of similar voting restrictions pushed by Republican-controlled legislatures such as in Texas, Congressional Democrats are hoping to pass a landmark national expansion of voting rights. H.R.1, the “For the People Act,” passed the House last month with no GOP support. The voting rights legislation has so far not gained support from Collins or any other Republican in the Senate and is not expected to receive the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
Photo: Sen. Susan Collins questioned by reporters during former President Donald Trump’s impeachment. | Samuel Corum, Getty
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