Georgia voting laws aren’t ‘oppressive or racist in any manner’: Joe Collins

Joe Collins, Republican Candidate for California’s 43rd District, joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to discuss Georgia’s voting restrictions and running for California’s 43rd District.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: We've been talking a lot about voting legislation, which has been passed in states like Georgia, which many activists say is suppressing the vote, especially that of Black voters. Now our next guest disagrees. So we're joined now by Joe Collins, Republican candidate for California's 43rd District. That is the seat that is currently held by Democrat Maxine Waters. Joe, good to have you here with us today. Now you say that the voting legislation in states like Georgia, like the proposals that we're seeing in Texas and 42 other states, are not suppressive at all. Why is that?

JOE COLLINS: Well, thank you for having me. And the reason why I don't think that the voting laws are being passed are suppressive are because, you know, in most states, you have to have an ID to be able to vote. In most states, you can't panhandle around polling places or voting places to give people food and water in order to sway votes. And so this is why I don't think these legislations that are being passed when it comes to voting is oppressive. I don't think they're racist.

But accountability is always important. When you talk about voting for someone who has the ability, the power to change your entire life, I think that accountability is absolutely important. And I think that this is what these laws do. IDs are absolutely important. Ensuring that you don't have any type of special interest Democrats or Republicans around the polling places, panhandling for votes is absolutely important. We have to get those things out. We have to ensure the integrity of our elections.

KRISTIN MYERS: OK, so Joe, I hear what you're saying about the voter ID requirements and then also that bit about handing out food and water to people that are waiting in line before they can go vote. But let's put that to the side for a moment because these voting bills go and they do much, much more than just those two things. And we had just a moment-- hopefully we can pull that graphic back up again about what's actually in some of these proposals.

There is now going to be less time for voters to request absentee ballots. It's now going to be illegal for election officials to mail out absentee ballot applications to just all voters. The amount of dropboxes has completely been reduced. Mobile voting centers are pretty much going to be banned. If you go to the wrong polling place, for example, it's going to be harder for you to vote once you do arrive at the correct ballot box, or at the correct polling place, I should say. Would you not say that at least those measures do not seem to at all expand the ability for everyone to vote which, frankly, is a nonpartisan issue? Everyone, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, should want as many people to participate in the electoral process as possible.

JOE COLLINS: Yes, I absolutely agree. We should have as many people participating in our election process, but only those who are qualified to vote. Now the biggest issue with sending out mass mail-in ballots is, you know, sometimes people don't update their voter registration. We're taking for granted that sometimes people forget certain things.

And so where you get in houses where you have two and three ballots, you want your guy to win, the potential for possible election fraud is there, filling out two or three ballots. We know the machines does not verify signatures. We can't forget the personal bias that people have towards different candidates. And so, yes, I think these measures are important. No, I do not think they're oppressive. I don't think that race is in any matter. The laws affect everyone, Democrat and Republican, like you said.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Joe, you know, a number of companies faced boycotts, criticism from folks asking them to pull out of Georgia, to boycott in some way over these laws. We saw the baseball commissioner Rob Manfred pull the summer classic, the All-Star game from Atlanta this summer. Some of our guests this week have said that the MLB is on the right side of history. What do you say to that?

JOE COLLINS: Well, you know, I'm not a part of the Major League Baseball franchise, so I can't speak specifically to them. But what I can say is that when the Major League Baseball, when the sports, when the companies have businesses, their businesses create revenue for those cities. So when you pull that business, when you pull that event from the cities, you're actually hurting the cities. You're hurting the residents of that city. Now, I do agree that the companies have the right to express their opinions by moving their organization to another state. Do I agree with it? Absolutely not.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Joe, just a moment ago, you were saying that doing things like sending out absentee ballots essentially opens up the door to fraud. And yet, this has been studied repeatedly. And the instances of widespread voter fraud are just low or, frankly, nonexistent. Even in the last election, the 2020 election, there were many allegations, misinformation, frankly, about widespread voter fraud. And they turned out to be false. So then why then is this legislation needed if we find--

JOE COLLINS: Well--

KRISTIN MYERS: --that voters are not fraudulently casting their ballots, why do you feel the need or why do you believe that we should have legislation to essentially cut down on fraud that doesn't exist?

JOE COLLINS: Well, we can't say that fraud doesn't exist. I know at my personal residence in South LA, I received three ballots. And two of the ballots were people who didn't even live in my home. Now who's to say that you have all these apartment buildings, you have all these residents who are receiving two and three ballots, the potential to get these ballots filled out and put in is absolutely high. Is it voter fraud? No, it's election fraud. Because voter fraud says that the voter is actually doing something, but election process, that there is a lot of election irregularities. Now I can't speak to the lawsuits that has been put in place, but I can say the possibility is there. But we have to keep people honest.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Joe, you ran against--

KRISTIN MYERS: I know--

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: --Maxine Waters in November. You garnered 28% of the vote, and Waters had 71% of the vote. What has changed in these past few months in terms of circumstances or your strategy that makes you think you can win the next time around?

JOE COLLINS: Well, I think, you know, during the 2020 election, we ran a really hard fought campaign. We can't forget that Maxine Waters is one of the most powerful, most formidable opponents in the House. But the fact remains. You know, we don't have a huge Republican presence in South LA. I was that Republican presence, and people are starting to look for different options when it comes to leadership. This is what gives me the confidence that we can go through in another election cycle and, you know, with a possible win as an outcome. If not, then we'll try again.