April 14 (Reuters) – Apple Inc AAPL.O, Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O, Ford Motor Co F.N and Starbucks Corp SBUX.O are among the many greater than 100 firms which have come collectively to oppose U.S. state voting curbs that activist teams say unfairly goal Black and different racial minorities.
“All of us ought to really feel a accountability to defend the fitting to vote and oppose any discriminatory laws or measures that limit or stop any eligible voter from having an equal and honest alternative to forged a poll,” the businesses stated in a letter printed as a two-page commercial in Wednesday’s New York Occasions.
The assertion was organized over the previous week and a half by former American Specific AXP.N Chief Govt Officer Ken Chenault and Merck & Co MRK.N CEO Ken Frazier, in accordance with the newspaper.
The 2 executives pushed for firms to take a stance in opposition to a wave of recent restrictive voting-rights payments contemplated by states equivalent to Texas and Arizona on a personal Zoom name about 100 CEOs, buyers, legal professionals and company administrators on Saturday.
Republicans throughout the nation are utilizing former President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud to again state-level voting adjustments they are saying are wanted to revive election integrity.
In a separate assertion on Tuesday, the highest executives of greater than three dozen Michigan-based firms, together with Common Motors Co GM.N and Ford opposed Republican-backed laws to limit voting.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co KO.N and Delta Air Strains Inc DAL.N weren’t among the many signatories of the Wednesday letter, however have put out particular person statements calling the voting limits in Georgia “unacceptable”.
Delta declined to touch upon the Wednesday letter. Coca-Cola stated it had not seen the letter however was open to listening to the attitude of the Black Financial Alliance, the group which helped sponsor the advert.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Ramakrishnan M.)
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