Jennifer Rubin from The Washington Post has a piece out highlighting the fight against voter suppression in Georgia and if the backlash will help Stacey Abrams (D. GA) become Governor:
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported: “Voters across Georgia rushed to the polls on the first day of in-person early voting Monday, with 69,049 people casting their ballots. That’s a sharp increase from the last midterm election in 2014, when 20,898 people showed up on the first day of in-person early voting.” Moreover, “When mailed-in ballots are added to in-person early votes, a total of 129,458 Georgians had already voted through Monday in advance of the Nov. 6 general election, which features the race for governor between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.”
The early voting period opens on the heels of Abrams’s denunciation of Kemp’s implementation of “exact match” voter registration, which has delayed processing of more than 53,000 applications. Abrams began her statewide bus tour Monday exhorting her supporters to turn out en masse, as The Post reported. (“I need all of you to find 53,000 additional votes just in case,” she said. “This election is about history. We are talking about our voices and our votes because this is our time.”)
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to enjoin Kemp from using the exact-match system, which prevents processing of applications because of minor discrepancies. “At issue is a state law that allows election officials — who have no handwriting-analysis expertise — to reject an absentee ballot if they think there is a signature mismatch in the voter’s paperwork, without giving prior notice to the voter or an opportunity to contest that determination,” the ACLU explained in a news release. “The ACLU is seeking a temporary restraining order requiring election officials to provide absentee voters the opportunity to confirm their identity or otherwise resolve the alleged discrepancy. The lawsuit notes that a voter’s signature could vary for a variety of reasons, both intentional and unintentional.” Sophia Lin Lakin, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a written statement: “People should not be denied their right to vote because of penmanship, but that’s exactly what is happening in Georgia. With an election on the horizon, we should be protecting voters, not denying them the opportunity to ensure their vote is counted.”
(In addition, a separate lawsuit filed by Coalition for Good Governance is challenging the high rate of rejection of absentee ballots from Gwinnett County, which has a substantial percentage of nonwhite voters.)
How much of the heavy early voting turnout is related to the voting issue, how much is related to Abrams’s historic campaign (she’d be the first female Georgia governor and the country’s first African American female governor) and how much is attributable to the pink wave of newly engaged women voters may be hard to assess.
Abrams is using Kemp and the GOP’s bull shit to help rile up the base:
Two days after a Jefferson County official ordered a senior center to remove roughly 40 elderly African Americans on their way to vote from Black Voters Matter’s bus, Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams rallied voters in the town, encouraging them to fight voter suppression.
Roughly 75 to 100 people — mostly African American — showed up at a parking lot in Louisvillle, just a few blocks from the senior center where the incident occurred Monday, to meet Abrams and cast early ballots.
“My goal is to make certain that every person be able to cast their vote,” Abrams told ThinkProgress, standing in the middle of the rally. “That’s why I wanted to come to Louisville to just encourage everyone to take advantage of the chance to early vote,” she said.
“Even if there are obstacles, we have to recognize that those obstacles are only permanent if we don’t fight them. We want to make certain that the folks of Louisville in Jefferson County understand that we are standing with them as they cast their votes.”
Republicans are absolutely scared shitless and resorting to stopping black people from voting because it is a tight race:
Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp are in a virtual tie in the race to be Georgia's next Governor, according to a poll released Wednesday by the research company Ipsos, in partnership with Reuters and the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
The poll shows Republican Brian Kemp with support from 47 percent of likely voters, with Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams at 46 percent.
The poll found the top issues for likely Georgia voters to be healthcare and the economy. According to the survey, 43 percent of likely voters feel Abrams has the better health care policy, while 38 percent say Kemp has the better policy.
Abrams knows every dirty trick in the Georgia GOP’s playbook on suppressing the vote because she’s been fighting them on this forever. So she’s using it as ammunition:
And on his support of “exact-match” laws that left more than 50,000 voter registrations in pending status? It’s part of a “larger pattern of incompetence” that she assailed during her bus tour.
“We will not let him take their votes away. We will not let him win,” she said in Statesboro. “Because we are better than that. We are the cradle of the civil rights movement.”
The harsher rhetoric is no surprise. Poll after poll shows the race is in a statistical tie, and Abrams is trying to energize her core supporters – and mobilize others who rarely cast ballots in midterms – with the start of early voting.
Nor is it one-sided. Kemp has blasted Abrams from the moment he won the runoff, with ads and campaign trail broadsides labeling her a “radical” and “extremist” who takes her cues from California and New York.
At her stops, Abrams invokes these attacks as evidence of her appeal.
“We can win this election. I believe the appropriate hip-hop term is, ‘They are shook,’” she says to a cheering crowd in Statesboro. “Because that’s why they’re saying crazy stuff all the time.”
Progressive groups know we’re close to winning this one and they are doubling down big time to win this race. Like Democracy for America:
Everyone is talking about the horrendous voter suppression that is happening in Georgia right now.
On Friday, Rachel Maddow issued a "flashing red light" warning when she learned that GOP gubernatorial candidate (and current Secretary of State) Brian Kemp was blocking 53,000 Georgians -- most of them Black -- from registering to vote.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. Progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are taking urgent action to protect Georgia voters. Several organizations, including the Georgia NAACP, have filed a lawsuit against Kemp.
And Democracy for America members have raised a whopping $94,458 to help Stacey fight the GOP's dirty tactics and get out the vote.
This fight is nowhere near over. Kemp told the Forsyth County News that this story was "fake news" and called demands for him to resign over this "ridiculous." They're going to keep trying to rig the game until the very end. It's up to us to stop them.
This is URGENT. Will you help us reach our goal of raising more than $100,000 to support Stacey and DFA's get-out-the-vote work in Georgia now?
Stacey has fought from day one to register and mobilize as many voters as possible, especially young folks and people of color who often stay home during midterms. Meanwhile, Kemp has spent his career purging the Georgia voter rolls -- removing more than 1.4 million names in just the last six years.
We can’t let Brian Kemp win this election by silencing the people of Georgia and blocking them from making their voices heard at the polls this November. A victory for Stacey would be a clear victory for democracy. The stakes are that high.
Democracy for America is investing significant time and resources into this critical race. We're going to have staff on the ground working with Stacey's team for the final 10 days -- and our members will keep supporting her by making critical turnout calls on DFA Dialer through Election Day.
Don't let Brian Kemp get away with denying people the right to vote and stealing this election. Pitch in $3 or more right now to help us raise more than $100,000 to help Stacey and DFA fight back in Georgia.
Thanks, and keep up the fight.
- Karli
Karli Wallace Thompson, Senior Digital Manager
Democracy for America
P.S. We've printed a t-shirt celebrating the groundbreaking gubernatorial campaigns of Stacey Abrams, Paulette Jordan, David Garcia, Ben Jealous, and Andrew Gillum. Chip in here to DFA's work supporting all five of these candidates and we'll send you this limited edition t-shirt (Act now before we run out).
And MoveOn.org:
Dear MoveOn member,
Stacey Abrams is running an electrifying campaign for governor of Georgia. And the latest polls show that the race is now a statistical dead heat.1 When she wins, she'll become the first Black woman ever elected governor in America.
Except there's a huge problem: She can't win if Republicans succeed in voter suppression. And her opponent, the Republican secretary of state, Brian Kemp, is trying to do just that.
News recently broke that Kemp has just thrown 53,000 Georgia voters—80% people of color—off the voter rolls.2
Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit to restore these voters' eligibility, but we can't count on the courts to fix this before the November election.3 So Stacey's campaign is scrambling to expand their voter turnout efforts to make sure the election can't be stolen from her.
Rachel Maddow is calling this a "flashing red light" voter suppression emergency.4 Will you rush an emergency donation of $3 to Stacey's campaign to help make sure every one of her supporters is able to vote?
Yes, I'll donate to Stacey's campaign. (100% of your donation will go directly to the Stacey Abrams campaign.)
This attack on voting rights, sadly, is nothing new. It's a continuation of a long history of American politicians keeping Black and other marginalized voters away from the polls.
Who are these 53,000 disenfranchised voters? They're 53,000 community members who want to help choose political leaders and influence the choices that will impact their communities. They're mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, retirees, veterans, students, new Americans, and first-time voters.
53,000 voters who might cast the decisive votes in the hotly contested Georgia governor's race, where Stacey's unabashedly progressive campaign is inspiring tens of thousands of people to vote for the first time.
If you're ready to say that in 2018 it's time to confront this racist history, if you're ready to challenge the notion that a Republican candidate for governor can choose who votes and who doesn't, and if you're ready to stand with 53,000 people who want to participate in our shared democracy, now is your chance.
Can you chip in $3 directly to Stacey's' campaign for governor right now and help Stacey fight back?
Yes, I'm in. I'll make an emergency contribution to Stacey's campaign.
Stacey has a long history of fighting to give Black people and other marginalized voters the power to vote.5 And her campaign has built up a powerful voter protection and empowerment operation.
Stacey is running an incredible campaign—no surprise, given her history of fighting alongside communities to defend their rights and taking on the rigged political system in Georgia. So we know that an emergency donation to her campaign will be put to effective use to counter the Republicans' savage voter suppression efforts.
Can you pitch in $3 now to Stacey's campaign? With just 20 days left—and 53,000 voters in limbo—now is the time to act. Click here now.
This is not the only case of Republican attacks on voters. Last week, a campaign aide for a Democratic campaign in Texas was arrested for trying to petition the county clerk to protect voting rights for students at a historically Black college.6
And across the country, there are well-documented efforts by right-wing groups to put up misleading advertisements to discourage voting—as well as efforts now enshrined in law, such as requiring ID to vote and including a Supreme Court decision made just days ago that could keep many Native Americans from North Dakota away from voting in that state's race that could decide control of the Senate.7
We must fight to register voters, educate voters, empower voters—and ultimately, we must replace the Republicans in statehouses and in Washington, D.C., who think that waging a war on voters is a winning strategy.
To improve voting rights and voting access across America, we need to elect transformative leaders who will pass pro-democracy, pro-voter policies—leaders like Stacey.
Can you pitch in $3 to support Stacey? 100% of your donation will go directly to her campaign.
Yes, I'm in. I'll make an emergency contribution to Stacey Abrams' campaign.
As Stacey knows, the way we'll win the fight against voter suppression is by winning elections. It is profoundly unfair that to build the fair system we need, we first have to win elections in the rigged system we have. But we have a choice: We can let our voices be silenced, or we can fight back. Stacey's fighting back. And I hope you'll join her.
Thanks for all you do.
–Senator Kamala Harris
Sources:
1. "Poll: Republican Kemp and Democrat Abrams statistically tied in Georgia governor race," The Hill, October 12, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/52974?t=18&akid=218712%2E9509482%2EQ-5opc
2. "Kemp Sued Over Georgia’s ‘Exact Match’ Voter Registration Scheme," Talking Points Memo, October 11, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/52973?t=20&akid=218712%2E9509482%2EQ-5opc
3. Ibid.
4. "Kemp holding up 53K voter registrations as he runs for governor," MSNBC, October 10, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/52978?t=22&akid=218712%2E9509482%2EQ-5opc
5. "Voting Rights and Public Integrity," Stacey Abrams for Governor, accessed October 17, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/53002?t=24&akid=218712%2E9509482%2EQ-5opc
6. "Why one political activist felt changing Prairie View A&M's voting procedure was worth going to jail," The Dallas Morning News, October 11, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/53003?t=26&akid=218712%2E9509482%2EQ-5opc
7. "Supreme Court Enables Mass Disenfranchisement of North Dakota’s Native Americans," ACLU, October 10, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/53004?t=28&akid=218712%2E9509482%2EQ-5opc
Click the links above from either DFA or MoveOn.org to help fuel Abrams campaign so she can keep fighting back against Kemp’s voter suppression tactics. To volunteer and get involved with Abrams’ campaign, click here. Also, click below to donate and get involved with Abrams fellow Georgia Democrats campaigns:
Sarah Riggs Amico for Lt. Governor
John Barrow for Secretary of State
Charlie Bailey for Attorney General
Lucy McBath for Congress
Carolyn Bourdeaux for Congress