Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon, who was arrested last week while knocking on Gov. Brian Kemp’s office door as he signed a new voting measure, called the signing of the bill a “far more serious crime” than her actions.
Cannon, wearing a sling around her arm, spoke briefly at a Thursday news conference in Atlanta, surrounded by her lawyers and supporters. She said being arrested was painful “both physically and emotionally,” 11 Alive reported.
She was taken into custody following the disturbance at the State Capitol last Thursday, where she protested Senate Bill 202, which some critics see as a form of voter suppression.
GEORGIA DEMOCRAT ARRESTED AFTER PROTESTING ELECTION REFORM BILL
During her efforts, law enforcement advised Cannon multiple times to refrain from knocking on the governor’s door and warned her of a possible arrest.
“As horrible as that experience was and as difficult as it is to acknowledge that I am facing eight years in prison on unfounded charges, I believe the governor’s signing into law the most comprehensive voter suppression bill in the country is a far more serious crime,” Cannon said.
Kemp has defended the law, inviting those who oppose it to debate the bill’s provisions, arguing the measure was designed to make it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
According to Cannon, she was granted a signature bond and later released from the jail last Thursday, where she was met by Sen. Raphael Warnock along with a crowd of supporters.
Cannon said she hopes to have two felony charges dropped, one count of obstruction of law enforcement and another count of preventing or disrupting the General Assembly.
“This bill gives the people more opportunities to vote,” Kemp said Wednesday. “It’s not disenfranchising anyone.”
Some of the bill’s provisions include but are not limited to requiring a photo ID to send absentee ballots, reducing the time frame in which runoff elections are held, reducing the number of ballot drop box locations and moving them indoors, and making it illegal for outside groups to directly hand out food and water to voters in line.
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Stacey Abrams, former gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist who helped Democrats win Georgia’s Electoral College votes last year for the first time since 1992, recently called the passed law racist and likened it to “Jim Crow in a suit.”
