The New Georgia Project and the NAACP filed suit Friday in Georgia Superior Court:
"to require the Secretary of State and [five] county boards of election to promptly process voter registration applications submitted by eligible voters in time for these citizens to cast a regular ballot in the midterm elections.... The state and counties have neither explained why the applications are unaccounted for, nor have they contacted these voters about their delayed or missing applications, as required by Georgia law."
Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp has shirked responsibility for over 40,000 voter registration applications stuck in a black hole, somewhere between his office and the counties. Meanwhile,
early voting in Georgia starts Monday, October 13th.
According to Rep. Stacey Abrams, leader of the New Georgia Project, many of these 40,000+ applications were submitted months ago, and
"At least 44% were between the ages of 18 and 25. Another 20% were between the ages of 25 and 35."
This should infuriate the whole country.
As a gesture of ill will, the SoS office "on Tuesday urged residents who believe they properly registered to contact their county election office to confirm their voting status." But the voter registration deadline was Monday, the previous day.
If you're concerned about the status of your voter registration application, call the non-partisan Election Protection coalition’s 1-866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683), which "is working with the NGP to help those who have registered to vote in Georgia but have not received confirmation voter registration cards" (according to the press release for the lawsuit).
Georgia's Secretary of State has unfairly targeted an organization that registered tens of thousands of youth and African Americans, continuing a nationwide effort to suppress the vote.
----- A Georgia librarian submits an open records request -----
SoS admits receiving only 1 complaint
On DailyKos.com, a Georgia librarian reported about her request under the Open Records Act "for all complaints of voter fraud filed with the Secretary of State's Office in 2014". RiotLibrarian
writes:
On September 9th, the Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp accused the New Georgia Project, which was having great success registering minority voters, of voter fraud. The SoS office served them with an intrusive subpoena that disrupted the last weeks of their voter registration efforts [snip]
As a justification, Kemp claimed that six different county officials contacted him to complain about voter fraud. He insinuated that the complaints were numerous. But the records of the Secretary of State's Office indicate that is a lie.
The SoS originally denied the open records request claiming the complaints "are exempt from disclosure...as they are records of pending investigations". But our local librarian "appealed, pointing out that incident reports are NOT exempt from disclosure as public records under Georgia law" forcing the SoS to release said records:
There were 6 complaints before September 9th (one additional one that was not filed until after the SoS filed their subpoena).
[snip]
There was one, single complaint that appeared to address the New Georgia Project, from the Butts County Election Director received way back on May 13th.
"Complainant reported that individuals were canvassing voters and telling voters they were required to reregister to vote. Wanted people and parolees were allegedly participating in the registration drive."
That's it. Despite the bald-faced claims of the Secretary of State, there was NOT a overwhelming number of complaints from across the state. There was one. And for that, the Secretary of State swung into action over four months later, right as this group was finishing up their registration efforts, and brought all of his power to bear to halt an effort to register voters in the state.
----- It's a close election -----
The New Georgia Project, NAACP and allies helped register over 120,000 people this year. And a total of more than 200,000 new voter registrations have been
completed since March, not counting the 40,000 outstanding applications.
To put that number in perspective, Michelle Obama recently said:
“If just 50 Democratic voters per precinct who didn’t vote in 2010 get out and vote this November—just 50 per precinct—then Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter will win.”
That's 137,000 votes statewide.
In addition to newly registered voters (and the 40,000 outstanding applications), there are an estimated 600,000 Democratic voters from 2012 that didn't vote in 2010. We have the numbers to win. Georgia's Republican Secretary of State understands this, and in July, he actually said:
Democrats are working hard...registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November.
----- Lawsuits, protest and GOTV are our way out of this -----
Conveniently, Brian Kemp, our infamous Secretary of State, is on the ballot this year. The Democratic candidate, Doreen Cater, is committed to "serving all Georgians with efficiency and fairness".
On Thursday Stacey Abrams also mentioned this excellent GOTV video from the New Georgia Project showing how to vote early in Georgia. It looks like it's made for TV.
The Democratic coordinated campaign is gearing up.
Volunteer to help GOTV
with Michelle Nunn, Jason Carter and Georgia Victory 2014
Join a virtual phone bank
Tuesday through Thursday, 5:30 - 8:30 PM ET.
http://www.michellenunn.com/...
Donate to Nunn.
To check your polling place and early voting locations visit http://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/
There's also a free app to download to your phone called "GA Votes". It gives info on polling places and early vote locations.