One Major League Baseball organization is speaking out about the potential election reforms that could be happening in its own state.
Miami Marlins CEO and New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter spoke out about the election-reform bill going through Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature Friday, the same day that the league pulled the All-Star Game out of Georgia because the Peach State passed a similar bill.
SORTING FACT FROM FICTION IN GEORGIA VOTING LAW DEBATE
“The act of participating in our country’s election process is our civic responsibility and instrumental to our country’s foundation,” the Hall of Fame shortstop said in a statement. “We should promote increasing voter turnout as opposed to any measures that adversely impact the ability to cast a ballot. In November, the Marlins proudly set out to promote the vote with our Election Day feed the polls initiative, providing meals to voters as our local election officials conducted free and fair elections.”
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law on March 25. He has rebuked Major League Baseball for its decision and accused it of having “folded up” and of having “cave[d] to the canceled culture.”
The bill will make numerous changes to the way elections work in the state, including the timing of runoff elections and the requirements for obtaining an absentee ballot. It would give state officials the authority to take over local election boards, and it would make it a crime for anyone other than election workers to approach voters in line to give them food and water.
The law codified the use of drop boxes, which had only been approved as a coronavirus solution in 2020, but they will be placed in early-voting locations and can only be accessed during the business hours of the voting precinct.
The team supports “the commissioner’s decision to stand up for the values of our game and not hold this year’s All-Star Game in the state of Georgia,” Jeter said.
Dozens of states are looking at solutions to change the way voters cast their ballot following the 2020 election.
Republicans have adopted the mantra to “make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” which means strengthening voter identification laws and promoting in-person, same-day voting. Democrats have often called for automatic voter registration, and they want to limit voter identification requirements.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Democrats’ conservative counterparts are trying to stifle turnout by making it more difficult and confusing for voters, they argue. Conservatives say Democrats are trying to rig elections to maintain the power they possess.
The Florida Senate, which is under Republican control, is considering a bill that specifically focuses on reducing the use of and making it harder to vote by mail.
The bill, S.B. 90, would prohibit the use of drop boxes, force voters who want to vote by mail to request their ballot annually instead of making it automatic, and it would require voters to include identification in their requests for a vote-by-mail ballot. It prohibits election officials from providing vote-by-mail ballots to people who did not request one.
