Amazon, Google, and hundreds of other major companies signed a letter Wednesday opposing "any discriminatory legislation" aimed at making it harder for eligible voters to cast their ballot as Republicans in several states push new restrictions.
"We call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right," said the letter from hundreds of businesses and corporate leaders, which appeared as an ad in the New York Times and Washington Post.
In signing the statement, Amazon and Google have joined a long list of corporations criticizing the voter restriction efforts following the passage of Georgia's new voting law.
The tech giants, like many large companies, have sought warm relations with both sides of the aisle in Washington and embraced Republican efforts to rollback regulations, lower taxes and even loosen businesses' ability to donate to elections and influence legislation. Yet the tension between Republicans and tech companies has escalated significantly in recent years, particularly with social media company efforts to curb voting misinformation in 2020.
Conservative lawmakers, some of whom had themselves spread election misinformation, cast those efforts as an attempt to throw the election toward Democrats and have defended the new voter laws as ensuring election security after former President Donald Trump falsely cast doubt on his electoral loss.
Trump and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have condemned companies that spoke out on the Georgia law, and other Republican lawmakers have proposed punishments for the companies and groups criticizing the measure. Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Josh Hawley on Tuesday announced they would introduce a bill to remove Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption because the MLB moved the All-Star Game from Georgia over the law.
According to the Times, the statement was organized by former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, two of the U.S.'s highest profile Black executives.
