Vice President Kamala Harris said during a speech Tuesday that new election integrity laws in Texas and Georgia are "inhumane" and advocated for national voting standards.
"We got to do something about putting teeth back in the voter, the Voting Rights Act, right? But we also need to deal with the fact that we need to have some national standards," Harris said while speaking at an event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. to mark National Voter Registration Day. "So states like Texas and Georgia can't just go on and say—it's inhumane—you can't give food or water to people in the [lines] standing."
Harris, who President Joe Biden put in charge of the administration's push to make voting easier, told the audience that their right to vote is being "threatened" and that "there are laws that are being passed to make it more difficult to vote so you don't."
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a bill in March that includes expanding early voting access, requiring identification for absentee ballots and prohibiting people from handing out food and water to those waiting in line to vote. It also bans people from handing out money, gifts, food and drinks to voters standing in line waiting to cast a ballot in an effort to curb efforts to solicit votes at the polls.
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed legislation that expands voting hours, increases voting access for registered voters needing assistance, bans drive-through voting and allows poll watchers to have increased access to additional aspects of the election process.
Biden has previously called the GOP-backed election bills "Jim Crow on steroids."
When a student asked Harris how to remove the stigma of division in politics, Harris said that "elections matter."
"Don't let them turn us off, while important decisions are being made about our life," she said.
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