Comedian, senior citizens take on Georgia lawmakers over voting rights

A comedian and a pair of nonagenarians are bringing a little levity to Georgia’s battle over voting rights.

In two separate videos, the three Georgia women urge Georgia legislators to vote down Senate Bill 202, a new omnibus bill introduced last week to replace an earlier one. The new bill seeks to ban people from giving food and water to voters waiting in line, limits early voting days for larger counties, and adds ID-requirements to absentee ballots.

The videos were sent to Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and other state lawmakers,

In the three-minute, 13-second down-home “Voting Rights in Georgia” video, comedian Georgianne Dawgleigh sings a satirical ditty she wrote called “Voting Rights in Georgia” set to the tune of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” a hit song by musical icons and Atlanta natives Gladys Knight and the Pips. The comedian is decked out in red, white, blue hat and scarf and a can of Coke sits nearby – a reference to one of six companies under pressure to take a stand against the voting bills.

“You do not want to punish people with stupid laws,” the comedian says before launching into song. The comedian ends the video toasting with her can of Coke to democracy and to “Georgia doing the right thing.”

In “Ruth and Mary’s Message to Georgia Legislators,” a soon-to-be-90 Ruth and 98-year-old Mary tell viewers they’ve been voting “longer than most legislators have been alive.” In the last election, Mary voted early at the Buckhead library while Ruth cast her vote using an absentee ballot.

In one video, an off-camera interviewer asks them what they want to tell Georgia lawmakers.

“I’m real old. I can’t go and vote sometimes and I would like for the voting to stay like it is, please,” a masked Mary says while seated on the passenger side of a car. “Don’t take anything off the voting register, please,”

When asked if she’d like to add anything, Ruth says “Don’t make it harder for us to vote.”

The two minute and thirty-two-second video ends with a song:

Georgia legislators
Hear our seniors
They deserve the right to vote
They have worked and sacrificed
For our freedom
Legislators take note.

The videos were released Wednesday, a week before sine die – the end of the 2021 legislative session – which is March 31.

To hear Ruth and Mary’s Message, go here.

Listen to Georgianne’s song here.

Click here to contact your legislators regarding voters’ rights.

And finally, you can watch live the hearing on SB 202 here.

(Header: Georgia comedian Georgianne Dawgleigh. Screenshot from YouTube video taken by Brandon Franklin)

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