Politics

State Rep Potentially Facing Eight Years Behind Bars For Criminal Charges Calls Georgia Election Bill ‘A Far More Serious Crime’

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Democratic Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon, who is reportedly facing up to eight years in jail for knocking on Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s door as he was signing S.B. 202 into law, said Thursday that the election bill was “a far more serious crime.”

Cannon began her Thursday press conference by thanking the people who had reached out in support after she was arrested. The representative said that she was “afraid” and didn’t know why she was being arrested or where the police were taking her.

“My experience was painful,” Cannon said. “Both physically and emotionally.” (RELATED: Stacey Abrams: ‘Please Do Not Boycott Us’ Over Election Law In Georgia)

A video showed two police officers dragging Cannon out of the Georgia Capitol building. Her knocking on Kemp’s door reportedly interrupted his prepared remarks, which is why she was arrested. She now faces two felony charges.

“But today I stand before you to say that as horrible as that experience was, and as difficult as it is to acknowledge that I am facing eight years in prison on unfounded charges, I believe the governor’s signing into law the most comprehensive voter suppression bill in the country is a far more serious crime,” she continued.

The Georgia election law has “such nefarious qualities” that it was condemned by several CEOs of major companies, Cannon added.

“When I see the photo of Kemp in his office, perched at his desk strategically positioned under a disgraceful painting of a south Georgia plantation flanked by a group of six white legislators, all male, in one stroke of the pen, I am reminded how important it is to stay focused on the issue at hand,” she said. “Voter suppression in Georgia is alive today on the first day of April.”

Cannon said that hours of work, decades of marches, prayers, and tears were “erased” when Kemp signed the election bill.