MLB moved its 2021 All-Star Game and draft out of the Peach State to protest an allegedly suppressive voting law.
After moving its 2021 All-Star Game out of Georgia to protest a state voting law passed earlier that year, Major League Baseball has gone silent on the subject, refusing to comment on the early-voting surge that materialized in the Peach state’s recent primaries despite the allegedly suppressive impact of the law which MLB and other major corporations so vocally opposed.
Echoing the Biden administration, Stacey Abrams, and a host of other prominent Democrats who said the voting law represented a return to the days of “Jim Crow,” MLB expressed concern last year that the law would suppress black turnout, tipping the scales in favor of the state’s Republicans, who spearheaded the election integrity measure.
“Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.”
Manfred said MLB “fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
Not only did early-voting not suffer as a result of the law, early voting reached record levels in this year’s primaries and early voting among black Georgians in particular also reached a record-high: According to figures released by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, as of May 18, 102,056 more black voters have cast early votes in this year’s primary elections than in 2018.
Asked whether the league had reconsidered its stance on the voting law in light of the substantial increase in early voting seen in last week’s primary elections, MLB’s public relations, executive relations, and feedback departments did not respond to repeated requests for comment. MLB Chief Communications Officer Patrick Courtney also did not respond to a request for comment.
MLB’s decision to move the 2021 All-Star Game and draft to Colorado came after President Joe Biden told ESPN that he would “strongly support” moving the July 13 game because of a law he described as “Jim Crow on steroids.”
The Election Integrity Act of 2021, passed along party lines in both chambers of the state legislature and signed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp, banned third-party groups from handing out food and drink to voters waiting in line in order to prevent electioneering; limited the use of drop boxes, which weren’t available at all prior to 2020; moved from signature match on mail-in ballots to the more reliable driver’s license or state-ID number; and expanded hours for early voting.
Kemp had pointed out the irony of MLB leaving for Colorado, as Colorado has very similar election laws to Georgia.
“Georgia has 17 days of in-person early voting including two optional Sundays, Colorado has 15,” Kemp said during an appearance on Fox News. “So what I’m being told, they also have a photo ID requirement. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
While Georgia requires identification for all in-person and absentee voting, Colorado law requires identification for in-person voting and first-time mail-in voters may be asked to present a copy of their ID with their ballot. After first-time mail-in votes, Colorado uses signature matching for absentee ballots.
The CEO of Cobb County Georgia’s tourism arm estimated that MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game to Colorado would cost the local economy about $100 million.
That total included more than 8,000 hotel reservations that will likely be canceled, spending on tickets and stadium food by more than 41,000 people who were expected to attend the events at Truist Park, and spending on travel and recreation before and after the game, said Alfredo Ortiz, the CEO of the Job Creators Network and an Atlanta-based small business advocate.
“The ripple effect on the local economy of a full MLB stadium after a year of lockdowns can’t be understated,” Ortiz told National Review in an email shortly after the game was moved. “The entire Greater Atlanta area will suffer.”