Former Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has been moving into the governor’s digs, even though his campaign win has not even been certified. He ran against Stacey Abrams, who would be the first black woman governor in the country, should she win. The idea that he was supposed to be safeguarding an election in which he was running, sounded like a campaign heading for disaster.
At the moment, Kemp was leading by a sliver of a margin, but Abrams claimed that there were plenty of uncounted votes. Those ballots could pull down Kemp’s lead and force a runoff the first week in December, according to The Associated Press.
Kemp has nearly 60,000 votes more than Abrams out of over 3.9 million votes. Should Abrams find 21,000 more votes in her favor, it would force a runoff.
Abrams filed a lawsuit requesting a federal court move that deadline. She also asked the court to make elections authorities count provisional and absentee ballots, which were not counted for “arbitrary reasons.” Her campaign released a statement detailing why she refused to give up her race. The statement read:
‘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.’
Abrams lawsuit requested the court order the state to count provisional ballots from voters registered in another county. This would be the equivalent of a person going to the wrong precinct to vote. Apparently, there are 1,556Â provisional ballots that were rejected by Fulton County. Of those 1,000 had been rejected, because the voters’ registration records indicated they lived in a different county.
Abrams lawsuit increased the possibility of catching anyone illegally removing eligible voters from the voter registration database or having that information illegally altered.
The lawsuit accused Kemp of:
‘…acting recklessly after a vulnerability in Georgia’s voter registration database was exposed shortly before the election..’
In addition, Abrams wanted any orders the court gives be applied retroactively should counties have already certified their ballots. That means, these counties would need to go through their counting process with a new standard imposed on the ballots.
Abrams filed a lawsuit requesting a federal court move that deadline. She also asked the court to make elections authorities count provisional and absentee ballots, which were not counted for “arbitrary reasons.” Her campaign released a statement detailing why she refuses to give up her run to be the first black woman governor in U.S. history. The statement read:
‘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.’
U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ordered the new secretary of state to set up a hotline or website for voters to find out whether their provisional ballots were counted. If they were not, the voters had the right to find out why. Totenberg also said that the secretary of state’s office had to review or let county election officials review voter’s provisional ballots due to registration issues in eligibility for any Georgia county with at least 100 provisional ballots
Kemp spokesperson, Ryan Mahoney, called Abrams lawsuit a “disgrace to democracy.” It also said that her effort does not see his mathematical realities:
‘Clearly, Stacey Abrams isn’t ready for her 15 minutes of fame to end.’
Thus far, the Associated Press has not yet called the race. Florida’s gubernatorial and Senate race have not been certified either.
The midterm elections brought Democrats the House of Representatives, seven new governor seats, and over “300 state legislative seats” the AP reported.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
