Fox News’ Chris Wallace claimed Sunday Georgia voters are prohibited from being given food or drink in line at the ballot box under a law the state’s governor signed last week.
“Let’s take a look at some of the provisions in Georgia,” Wallace said during an interview with South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. “The one that I think is creating the biggest fuss, it prohibits, it makes it a crime to give food or drink to voters waiting in line. Senator, why on Earth if Americans are willing to wait hours to vote, would you make it a crime for people to come and give them a bottle of water?”
“All I can say is that that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, I agree with you there,” Graham said.
The Fox News program doubled down on the false claim, publishing text from the bill that explicitly prohibits voters from being given food or drink in line after an on-air fact-check by Republican strategist Josh Holmes during its end-of-show panel.
On today’s Sunday Panel there was disagreement over GA’s voting law says about bringing food & drink to voters.
Here’s what it actually says: pic.twitter.com/bBwzQ5dA9C
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) March 28, 2021
The network’s post omitted key provisions of the law that provide exceptions to “poll officers” to give voters refreshments as long as they are not provided by political interest groups.
Why cut off the next paragraphs that prove @HolmesJosh was right? https://t.co/lybZYDSLpX pic.twitter.com/1V5LTTPOpX
— Mike Reed (@reed1311) March 28, 2021
“This Code section shall not be construed to prohibit a poll officer from … making available self-service water from an unattended receptacle to an elector waiting in line to vote,” the bill reads.
