[uupretirees] Re: The tide seems to be turning against voting restrictions

From: Eric Russell <ericprussell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "uupretirees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <uupretirees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2021 05:07:56 +0000

And I still believe the "citizens united" decision was wrong.  Corporations are
not people and should not be entitled to unlimited political "speech."  Eric

________________________________
From: uupretirees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <uupretirees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Eric Russell <ericprussell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2021 12:58 AM
To: uupretirees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <uupretirees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [uupretirees] The tide seems to be turning against voting restrictions

Corporations are voting with dollars.  Eric

[The Washington
Post]<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C96dc129c332d4f21d64108d8fd6f9322%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637538002941122150%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=yDrC%2B1EvYLBD71c0VGNEPQT9iSCYcBuCFmHolpzt1QE%3D&reserved=0>
More than 100 corporate executives hold call to discuss halting donations and
investments to fight controversial voting bills
Todd Frankel  1 hr ago
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[cid:2ae552ce-70bb-453f-8393-3e858f609815]

More than 100 chief executives and corporate leaders gathered online Saturday
to discuss taking new action to combat the controversial state voting bills
being considered across the country, including the one recently signed into law
in Georgia.

[A scene from North Cobb Regional Library in Kennesaw, Ga. before the Georgia
Senate runoff elections in January. (Photo by Kevin D. Liles for The Washington
Post)]© Kevin D. Liles/For the Washington Post A scene from North Cobb Regional
Library in Kennesaw, Ga. before the Georgia Senate runoff elections in January.
(Photo by Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post)

Executives from major airlines, retailers and manufacturers — plus at least one
NFL owner — talked about potential ways to show they opposed the legislation,
including by halting donations to politicians who support the bills and even
delaying investments in states that pass the restrictive measures, according to
four people who were on the call, including one of the organizers, Jeffrey
Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor.

While no final steps were agreed upon, the meeting represents an aggressive
dialing up of corporate America’s stand against controversial voting measures
nationwide, a sign that their opposition to the
laws<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fbusiness%2F2021%2F04%2F01%2Fgeorgia-voting-law-delta-coke-business%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C96dc129c332d4f21d64108d8fd6f9322%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637538002941162119%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=1oXZk%2F3wO44%2Bd3Pu%2Fb9VgEouY%2BBVAEduG%2F1tnHg5hzo%3D&reserved=0>
didn’t end with the fight against the Georgia legislation passed in March.

It also came just days after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
warned that firms should “stay out of politics” — echoing a view shared by many
conservative politicians and setting up the potential for additional conflict
between Republican leaders and the heads of some of America’s largest firms.
This month, former president Donald Trump called for conservatives to boycott
Coca-Cola, Major League Baseball, Delta Air Lines, Citigroup, ViacomCBS, UPS
and other companies after they opposed the law in
Georgia<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F04%2F03%2Fgeorgia-voting-law-explained%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C96dc129c332d4f21d64108d8fd6f9322%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637538002941162119%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=fQY%2FoYlsBM%2BBiTNXQj0gmN%2FgQLnfrsZF50Op3%2BvDPdE%3D&reserved=0>
that critics say will make it more difficult for poorer voters and voters of
color to cast ballots. Baseball officials decided to move the All-Star Game
this summer from Georgia to Colorado because of the voting bill.

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The online call between corporate executives on Saturday “shows they are not
intimidated by the flak. They are not going to be cowed,” Sonnenfeld said.
“They felt very strongly that these voting restrictions are based on a flawed
premise and are dangerous.”

Leaders from dozens of companies such as Delta, American, United, Starbucks,
Target, LinkedIn, Levi Strauss and Boston Consulting Group, along with Atlanta
Falcons owner Arthur Blank, were included on the Zoom call, according to people
who listened in.

The discussion — scheduled to last one hour but going 10 minutes longer — was
led at times by Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American
Express, and Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, who told the
executives that it was important to keep fighting what they viewed as
discriminatory laws on voting. Chenault and Frazier coordinated a letter signed
last month by 72 Black business executives that made a similar point — a letter
that first drew attention to the voting bills in executive suites across the
country.

The call’s goal was to unify companies that had been issuing their own
statements and signing on to drafted statements from different organizations
after the action in Georgia, Sonnenfeld said. The leaders called in from around
the country — some chimed in from Augusta, Ga., where they were attending the
Masters golf tournament.

“There was a defiance of the threats that businesses should stay out of
politics,” Sonnenfeld said. “They were obviously rejecting that even with their
presence (on the call). But they were there out of concern about voting
restrictions not being in the public interest.”

One Georgia-based executive talked about how the final version of Georgia’s
legislation — which Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has said actually expands voting
access, a claim that many have challenged — was much worse than expected, and
how that should serve as a warning to other chief executives as more states
consider adopting their own voting bills, according to people on the call.

Access to the polls has emerged as a major national issue. Republican state
lawmakers are trying to pass legislation they say is designed to combat voting
fraud — which Trump has baselessly and frequently claimed is a problem.
GOP-backed bills in various statehouses aim to ban ballot drop boxes, limit
voting periods, restrict absentee voting or stiffen requirements for voter
identification. Five bills with new voter restrictions have been passed
nationwide so far, with 55 restrictive bills in 24 states being considered by
legislatures, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law
and policy institute.

Companies have jumped into hot-button political debates before, such as the
corporate backlash to a 2016 North Carolina bill banning transgender people
from using the public restroom that corresponds with their gender identities.
After the Capitol riot in January, many companies pledged to stop donating to
politicians who spurred doubts about the outcome of the presidential election.

Now, it is voting rights. Many of the corporate leaders who joined the call
seemed to view the voting restrictions as attacks on democracy, rather than as
a partisan issue, according to people who listened in.

Mike Ward, cofounder of the Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan group of businesses
focused on voter engagement, said he felt there was a broad consensus at the
end of the call that company leaders plan to continue working against voting
bills they think are restrictive — “to lean into this, not lean away from this.”

References:
- [uupretirees] The tide seems to be turning against voting restrictions
  - From: Eric Russell

Other related posts:

» [uupretirees] The tide seems to be turning against voting restrictions- Eric Russell
» [uupretirees] Re: The tide seems to be turning against voting restrictions - Eric Russell