On November 5, Common Cause Georgia filed a lawsuit that accused Georgia governor candidate Brian Kemp, who held the office of secretary of state until he resigned last week, “of acting recklessly after a vulnerability in Georgia’s voter registration database was exposed shortly before the election.”
The organization claimed that Kemp’s “actions increased the risk that eligible voters could be illegally removed from the voter registration database or have registration information illegally altered.”
Judge Amy Totenberg of the Federal District Court in Atlanta ordered officials to wait until Friday to certify the governor’s race and do all they can to protect provisional ballots.
From The Wall Street Journal:
In a ruling late Monday, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ordered the secretary of state’s office to establish and publicize a hotline or website where voters can check whether their provisional ballots were counted and, if not, the reason why.For counties with 100 or more provisional ballots, she ordered the secretary of state’s office to review, or have county election officials review, the eligibility of voters who had to cast a provisional ballot because of registration issues.Judge Totenberg also ruled that Georgia mustn’t certify the election results before Friday at 5 p.m., which falls before the Nov. 20 deadline set by state law.
This ruling does not move the “deadline for countries to certify their results,” which is today. However, Abrams filed her own lawsuit to extend that deadline:
But Ms. Abrams’s campaign filed a lawsuit Sunday asking a federal court to push that deadline to Wednesday, while also requiring that elections authorities count certain provisional and absentee ballots that have been or would be rejected for “arbitrary reasons.”“I am fighting to make sure our democracy works for and represents everyone who has ever put their faith in it. I am fighting for every Georgian who cast a ballot with the promise that their vote would count,” Ms. Abrams said in a statement explaining her refusal to end her bid to become the first black woman elected governor in U.S. history.
Kemp’s campaign described Abram’s moves as “a disgrace to democracy” and accused her of ignoring “mathematical realities.” The campaign has a point.
She needs 20,000 votes in order to have a runoff. Kemp is in the lead by 50.26%.
Democrat Sens. Cory Booker (NJ) and Brian Schatz (HI) have asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate possible “voting rights abuses.” From WDEF:
Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Brian Schatz of Hawaii released a letter Monday to Assistant Attorney General Dreiband. The senators cite concerns with Georgia’s “exact match” law requiring voters’ information to match precisely how they appear on other government databases. They also cite aggressive efforts to delete inactive voters from the rolls and the elimination of polling places.Booker and Schatz’s letter requests a “thorough investigation” to determine if Georgia’s election laws and policies violate the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court in 2013 rolled back a provision of that law requiring Georgia and other states to get federal approval before changing voting laws.
Kemp’s campaign wants Abrams to concede:
Kemp campaign spokesman Ryan Mahoney said in a statement Monday that Abrams had “moved from desperation to delusion.”Mahoney said: “Stacey Abrams lost and her concession is long overdue.”
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