Of all the provisions in Georgia’s new election law, the one that has provoked the most condemnation – understandably – is the criminalization of providing food and drink to voters waiting in line.
President Joe Biden, who called the law an “atrocity,” complained that “they passed a law saying you can’t provide water for people standing in line while they’re waiting to vote. You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing but punitive design to keep people from voting. You can’t provide water for people about to vote? Give me a break.”
But this issue involves more than feeding the hungry or making it possible for them to vote.
In a lawsuit challenging the Georgia law, plaintiffs (who include a civil rights group and a unit of the African Methodist Episcopal Church) describe a practice called “line warming”:
“Through providing water and other resources, Plaintiff AME Church and others throughout Georgia engage in the…
