By Hilary Russ
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Religious leaders in Georgia on Tuesday will call for a boycott of Home Depot Inc because of its silence on the state’s new voting curbs that activists say make it harder for Black people and other racial minorities to vote.
Other Georgia-based corporations – including Delta Air Lines Inc and Coca-Cola Co – have been meeting with the activists for weeks and issued statements opposing the voting restrictions.
Coca-Cola also hosted a meeting of several companies on April 13 with the faith leaders, but Home Depot did not attend and has since “ignored a series of follow-up requests, and has failed to speak publicly on the new law,” the activists – led by AME Bishop Reginald Jackson and representing more than 1,000 chruches – said in a notice to media on Tuesday.
“Blacks and others have become wary and frustrated with spending their money (at) companies that do not support us on our right to vote and other issues,” Jackson said last week.
Republicans across the country are using former President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud to back state-level voting changes they say are needed to restore election integrity.
Opponents of the moves say they are intended to disenfranchise citizens who tend not to vote Republican.
More than 100 U.S. companies including Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Ford Motor Co and Starbucks Corp have declared their opposition to voting curbs that a number of states are considering implementing.
Home Depot said on Tuesday it believes “all elections should be accessible, fair and secure and support broad voter participation” and that it would “continue to work to ensure our associates in Georgia and across the country have the information and resources to vote.”
It also said it ran its own initiatives, including registering more than 15,000 of its associates to vote.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
