Georgia has long been a target for the leftist “Jim Crow 2.0” dogwhistle. President Joe Biden coined the phrase in January 2021 in response to a voter integrity law passed in the state. Georgia’s only intent was to streamline its voting laws and put to bed claims of voter suppression. After Tuesday’s safe, easy, and fair election, the slanderous nickname has been shown to be a total lie. Georgia has been vindicated.

Why did the new voter integrity law get this deceiving nickname? Critics like Washington Post editorial board member Jonathan Capehart complained that it “restricted absentee voting.” He added, “It placed checks on who can provide food and water to people waiting to vote. And while it made ballot drop boxes permanent, it reduced their number, limited where they could be located and cut down the hours they are available.”

The midterms would be the ultimate litmus test for these allegations.

“According to Georgia Secretary of State data,” reports National Review, “3,957,598 voters cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election, up slightly from 3,949,905 in 2018 — a difference of 7,693 ballots.” This is a strong indication that the unfounded claim that Georgia voters are suppressed is false.

The specter of voter suppression was infamously raised by gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams. In 2018, when she first faced current then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Abrams was beaten by nearly 55,000 votes. She refused to concede her loss and claimed that the reason she hadn’t won was due to voter suppression of the black vote. The narrative of racist voter suppression reared its ugly head for the first time in decades.

After many years pursuing this lie through the Fair Fight Action group she created, Abrams lost her court case in early October. The federal judge in the case is an Obama appointee and is black — two qualities that might make him more open to her claims. However, Judge Steve Jones put the kibosh on the racism claim. Just because 69% of the voters who were flagged as a mismatch in voting information were black did not actually prevent them from voting. National Review reported that Jones “quotes the Supreme Court for the proposition that a ‘policy that appears to work for 98 percent or more of voters to whom it applies — minority and non-minority alike — is unlikely to render a system unequally open.’”

Abrams lost yet again to Brian Kemp on Tuesday. She had 45.85% of the vote, and Kemp won with 53.4%, trouncing her by an indisputable margin.

As for the voting itself, the fears were that long lines and inefficiency would cause many to give up and not vote. The voter integrity law that inspired the horrid “Jim Crow 2.0” monicker actually worked to streamline voting and make it easier and more efficient. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution acknowledged: “Voters found out Tuesday that it’s possible to have both high turnout and short lines. No one reported threats or illegal behavior at polling places.”

With this demonstrative conclusion of the 2022 midterms, it’s time to bury the fallacious allegation of “Jim Crow 2.0” and excise its ghost to the trash heap of history where it belongs.