In a debate over HB 1, a bill aiming to limit political spending and gerrymandering, reduce voting restrictions and create new ethics rules for federal officials, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used her time on the House Floor to ridicule COVID-19 and security precautions in the Capitol complex.
Green claimed that voter suppression “happens right here in Congress,” while motioning to the metal detectors at each entrance to the House floor. Metal detectors were added to the entrance to the House floor soon after the Capitol insurrection on January 6. Since then, the detectors have stopped two Republican House Representatives from bringing concealed firearms onto the House Floor.
After saying that lawmakers are being treated “very disrespectfully,” Greene said, “standing in line to vote is not voter suppression, it’s just part of the voting process, just like people stand in line to buy groceries.” Voters in several states wait in lines for hours as a result of partisan voting center placement.
Voters in Georgia’s 2018 election had an average wait time of 21.7 minutes according to the Bipartisan Policy Center and some urban Georgia voters waited as long as 12 hours to cast a ballot in the 2020 election. Minority voters in Greene’s own state wait 45% longer to cast their ballot compared to white voters according to research from the Brennan Center.
