The Washington Post Fact Checker knocked President Biden on Tuesday for falsely claiming a new Georgia law “ends voting hours early,” giving him its harshest rating of Four Pinocchios for spreading the misinformation.
Biden repeatedly claimed last week a law signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R., would make it harder for working-class people to vote.
“What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick,” Biden said. “Deciding that you’re going to end voting at five o’clock when working people are just getting off work.”
Biden doubled down the following day in a written statement: “Among the outrageous parts of this new state law, it ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over.”
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote Biden’s claim couldn’t be substantiated.
“One could understand a flub in a news conference. But then this same claim popped up in an official presidential statement. Not a single expert we consulted who has studied the law understood why Biden made this claim, as this was the section of law that expanded early voting for many Georgians,” Kessler wrote.
“On Election Day in Georgia, polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if you are in line by 7 p.m., you are allowed to cast your ballot. Nothing in the new law changes those rules. However, the law did make some changes to early voting. But experts say the net effect was to expand the opportunities to vote for most Georgians, not limit them,” Kessler continued, noting some experts feel Biden may have been briefed on an outdated version of the bill.
Kessler also wrote Biden may have gotten confused because the new law clarifies that early voting can be conducted “beginning at 9:00 AM and ending at 5:00 PM,” as opposed to the previous framing that simply noted early voting “shall be conducted during normal business hours.”
“But, as noted, the law also allows individual counties to set the hours anywhere between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. So the practical effect of the 5 p.m. reference in the law is minimal,” Kessler wrote. “We sought an explanation from the White House for the reason for Biden’s remarks but did not receive an on-the-record response.”
Kessler explained why Biden earned the dreaded four Pinocchios for his falsehood.
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“Biden framed his complaint in terms of a slap at working people. The law would ‘end voting at five o’clock when working people are just getting off work’ or ‘ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over,’” he wrote. “Many listeners might assume he was talking about voting on Election Day, not early voting. But Election Day hours were not changed … an additional mandatory day of early voting on Saturday was added and two days of early voting on Sunday were codified as an option for counties.
“Somehow Biden managed to turn that expansion into a restriction aimed at working people, calling it “among the outrageous parts” of the law. There’s no evidence that is the case,” he wrote.
