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The forum is scheduled to include Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried; Miami-Dade Democratic Sen. Annette Taddeo, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections; and representatives of Equal Ground Action Fund, Disability Rights Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Black Voters Matter, All Voting is Local, and many others.

“This is the best version of the bill yet. But it’s important to remember that none of this is necessary. It’s a reaction to voter turnout,” Brad Ashwell, state director of All Voting is Local, told The News Service of Florida on Tuesday.

Ashwell said the number of Black voters who cast ballots by mail in Florida last year doubled — to more than 500,000 — from 2016 and 2018. Black voters also cast 11.4 percent of all vote-by-mail ballots in Florida in 2020, compared to 8.9 percent in 2016, he said.

“There’s no need for this bill. It’s very much designed to reinforce that national narrative that we have problems with our voting systems for the sake of justifying barriers to voting,” Ashwell said.

Critics say it’s the voting law that’s political and will disproportionately affect communities of color. Kemp’s news conference was trying to deflect from that, as the governor gears up for next year’s election to try to win a second term, said Aklima Khondoker, state director of the voting rights group, All Voting is Local.

“He’s pivoting away from all of the malicious things that we understand that this bill represents to people of color in Georgia,” she said.

Brad Ashwell, "All Voting is Local" Florida state director, said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Florida get some of the same blowback as Georgia if the proposals were to pass, at least in their current form.“

Whether all the activity around Georgia is making them recalculate anything, I would think it would have to factor into their calculus in some way,” he said.

“I think they are trying to be somewhat responsive now."

“It’s not enough to talk the talk; you have to walk the walk,” says Aklima Khondoker, Georgia State Director for All Voting is Local, a national voting rights group. “Call for a repeal of this bill. Call for a ban of all of these provisions. Do that publicly. With their voice it’s going to be incredibly loud and hard to ignore when those corporations speak.”

Aklima Khondoker, All Voting is Local Georgia State Director, and Stephanie Jackson Ali, All Voting is Local Georgia Campaign Manger, discuss why Georgia's SB 202 is harmful and anti-voter.