Georgia voting rights lawsuit heads to trial as the state prepares for fiery midterms
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Georgia’s election policies will be put to the test Monday, as a trial three years in the making begins to address voting issues in the state in 2018 and 2020.
Voters and election officials from around Georgia will testify under oath about a plethora of blockades they faced when trying to vote in Georgia’s gubernatorial election in 2018 and the presidential election in 2020, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reports.
RELATED STORY: Stacey Abrams turns tables on Gov. Kemp, files suit to use law he signed for himself in her favor
The lawsuit will focus on voting laws including the “exact-match” rule, which essentially puts a voter’s registration into a “pending” status if the name doesn’t exactly match a citizen’s government-issued ID. According to AJC, prior to the 2018 election, “nearly 47,000 voter registrations were put in ‘pending status,’ about 70% of which were from Black residents.”
The suit was filed in 2018 by Stacey Abrams’ group Fair Fight Action after she lost her gubernatorial race to Republican Brian Kemp.
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Defendants in the suit are Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other election officials. The case will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2010.
In February, Jones threatened to delay the Georgia midterms to June or July in order to consider three lawsuits alleging gerrymandered maps that discriminate against Black voters and are in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). “I need to hear all the evidence before I make a decision,” Jones said.
“Almost all of Abrams’ claims have already been dismissed, and the remaining ones are nowhere close to what she alleged in her nonconcession speech,” Raffensperger told the AJC. “Her three-year ‘stolen election’ campaign has been nothing more than a political stunt to keep her in the national spotlight, and it’s a disservice to voters.”
But the reality remains that voters of color are being suppressed, and not just in Georgia.
Using the excuse that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, Republicans have made it their mission to put as many voting restrictions in place as they can.
The Brennan Center reports that as of mid-January, “legislators in at least 27 states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 250 bills with restrictive provisions,” compared to just 75 in 2021.
Just last month, with Republicans largely in favor, the Georgia House voted 98-78 to pass HB 1464, which gives the Georgia Bureau of Investigation freedom of “jurisdiction to investigate election fraud and election crimes,” “subpoena power to further such investigations,” as well as the power to “provide for penalty; to provide for related matters,” and “to repeal conflicting laws.”
Here are just a few examples of the many games and voting restrictions the GOP is trying to put into place:
Arizona Republicans proposed a law forcing all citizens in the state to vote in person. In Mississippi, GOP lawmakers attempted to remove all voters from the rolls within 30 days if they did not show proof of U.S. citizenship. In Texas, thanks to SB 1, hundreds of ballots were rejected in Tarrant County.
AJC reports that Sen. Raphael Warnock is scheduled to testify via video, and the trial could last about a month.