Several states, including Georgia, Texas, and Arizona are reforming their election and voter integrity laws. However, the Republican-led efforts did not escape the notice of the mainstream media, “woke” corporations such as Coca-Cola, or higher education organizations.
Forty-nine higher education organizations issued a statement condemning these laws, some of which have not yet been passed or signed into law. Among the signatories are the American Council on Education, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Council for Higher Education Accreditation, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Citing America’s “just, vibrant, and democratic society,” these organizations claimed that laws should encourage “all eligible voters to exercise their right to cast a ballot.” The statement lauded college students in the Civil Rights era for being “at the forefront of the struggle” to allow black Americans the right to vote. In short, it insinuated that the new voter integrity laws were nothing more than an updated version of the discriminatory Jim Crow laws, which formerly disenfranchised black Americans from easily accessing their right to vote.
These organizations also announced their strong opposition to “the many efforts currently underway… to suppress voting by qualified voting.”
Yet their claim that these laws circumvented democracy and would impose restrictions on voting was incorrect. For example, Georgia’s new law not only gives local election officials the choice to expand the number of early voting days, but provides free identification documents for residents who request them. However, these details did not stop these higher education organizations from condemning honorable attempts to secure the country’s elections.
