A Kentucky county Republican judge-executive, which is an elected official who is the chief executive of a county, is demanding Coca-Cola remove all products from government buildings due to the corporation’s opposition to Georgia’s recently implemented election law.
Judge-Executive David Voegele in Oldham County wrote to Coca-Cola’s Louisville district sales manager Robyn Young and questioned why the company would oppose a law that mandates voter identification, among other provisions.
“Coca-Cola has chosen to deepen the divide in our nation by using its brand to support those who purposely promote misguided assumptions about the Georgia bill, which in reality, expands early voting opportunities, provides for shorter voting lines, and secures the use of drop boxes which would otherwise be illegal,” Voegele said in the letter exclusively obtained by The Federalist. “The legislation also attempts to make sure only those individuals eligible to cast a vote are those who do vote.”
“Proper identification in order to vote is not regressive,” the leader continued. “It is the law in Kentucky and elsewhere. The Georgia legislation also rightly protects the value of citizenship by requiring each voter to present proper identification. It is difficult to understand how a fair election can be held in circumstances where there is no requirement to prove eligibility to vote.”
Last week, a county in North Carolina similarly targeted Coca-Cola due to discontentment with its vocal opposition to SB 202. Coca-Cola spokeswoman Ann L. Moore told The Federalist that “representatives from our local bottler have reached out to the local commissioners, and they look forward to continuing their productive conversations with those officials,” but Surry County commissioners voted to remove all Coca-Cola vending machines from office buildings.
Voegele, who has been in office since 2010, called for the company to remove all of its products from several buildings owned by the court.
“Consequently, based on these circumstances and until the company is willing to publicly reforms itself, your product is no longer welcome here. Please remove all Coke vending products from property owned by Oldham County Fiscal Court, including, the Fiscal Court Building in LaGrange, the Oldham County Detention Center, the Oldham County Road Department and the Oldham County Pool. Your immediate cooperation is requested.”
In addition to voicing disapproval with the company’s position on the Georgia bill, Voegele called out Coca-Cola for its relationship with Communist China, where the corporation does a significant amount of production. Last year, Coca-Cola pushed back on a bill banning the importation of products that came from forced labor.
See below for the full letter:
Coca-Cola Letter – Oldham County Fiscal Court by The Federalist on Scribd
