Some of the most closely-watched races in the midterms seem to be far from decided. While Texas’s Beto O’Rourke conceded to Ted Cruz on Tuesday night, Andrew Gillum of Florida and Stacey Abrams of Georgia look to be not yet counted as losses for the Democratic party.
Abrams campaign preps lawsuit over Dougherty County absentee ballots https://t.co/cT8d8bn5CF #gapol @PoliticallyGa @TIAreports pic.twitter.com/9IGeyf4j50
— James Salzer (@jsalzerajc) November 8, 2018
Abrams’ campaign announced on Wednesday that it would file a lawsuit over thousands of absentee ballots.
‘Some residents of Dougherty County, which includes the city of Albany, requested ballots by mail and never received them, Kastorf said. Others received them too close to the election and weren’t given enough time to fill out and return ballots by the state’s deadline, he said.
‘The lawsuit will ask the courts to require that these ballots be counted, even if they were received late.’
Stacey Abrams will file a lawsuit in Georgia’s Dougherty County, which is 70% black, claiming people who requested mail-in ballots either never received them or were sent them too late because of Hurricane Michael. She wants those ballots to be counted. pic.twitter.com/yh9aSTENms
— AJ+ (@ajplus) November 8, 2018
Abrams’ challenger, GOP Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, is only leading by around 42,000 votes. Allegations of voter suppression were prevalent well before Tuesday, as Kemp’s position as secretary of state gave Kemp the authority to oversee an election in which he was a candidate. He resigned from that post on Wednesday, but the damage had already been done and trust in Georgia’s elections have suffered.
Presser is over. To review: today the Abrams team will file a lawsuit in Dougherty County for the people who received their absentee ballots late. If necessary, they'll file more lawsuits to ensure the other vote count issues are resolved.
— Gillian Brockell (@gbrockell) November 8, 2018
At a press conference, an Abrams campaign spokesperson, Lauren Groh-Wargo, said that Abrams has no intention of bowing out until the vote is fairly counted.
‘We are in this race until we’re convinced that every vote is counted. We don’t believe any of these numbers are credible.’
Emergency lawsuit filed to stop Republican Brian Kemp presiding over his own race against Stacey Abrams https://t.co/aSEwiUC5KC pic.twitter.com/rGnpAyawQQ
— Independent US (@IndyUSA) November 8, 2018
For now, the gap grows ever narrower between Abrams and Kemp while the count continues.
For video of the press conference, see below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube