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White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday condemned a police decision to arrest Georgia Democratic state Rep. Park Cannon during a protest of a new state election law.
Cannon was cuffed for obstruction Thursday after refusing to comply with a police order to stop knocking on the office door of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp at the state Capitol.
“I think anyone who saw that video would have been deeply concerned by the actions that were taken by law enforcement to arrest her when she simply — by the video that was provided — seemed to be knocking on the door to see she could watch a bill being signed into law,” Psaki said.
“The largest concern here obviously, beyond her being treated in the manner she was, which is of course of great concern, is the law that was put into place.”
Psaki said that “it should not be harder, it should be easier to vote. We should not put limitations in place. People should be able to vote from home, they should be able to use absentee ballots. There should be a range of restrictions that are undone, not put back in place.”
Republicans in the state legislature passed the new election law following narrow GOP losses in a pair of runoff US Senate elections in January and former President Donald Trump’s November loss by fewer than 12,000 votes.
The new state law contains a slew of changes that Democrats claim are intended to reduce voter participation, including a ban on providing food and water to people waiting to vote.
The new law requires a photo ID to begin the absentee voting process and shrinks the absentee ballot window. It also allows the state government to take over local elections work in response to alleged poor performance.
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