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Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams takes the stage to declare victory in the primary during an election night event on May 22, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. If elected, Abrams would become the first African American female governor in the nation. (Photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
Civil rights groups have filed a new lawsuit in order to stop a statewide voter suppression effort in Georgia after the GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp--who just happens to be the state's Secretary of State as well--led an effort to purge more than 50,000 voter registrations, predominately of black voters, from the rolls just weeks before the November 6 election.
Led by the Georgia Coalition of the People's Agenda, the local NAACP, and other civil rights groups, the suit (pdf) seeks to halt enforcement of the so-called "exact match" rule that allows the state to purge registrations if any part of their name or other information does not match existing documents.
"Georgia's 'exact match' protocol has resulted in the cancellation or rejection of tens of thousands of voter registration applications in the past," said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, also party to the suit. "The reintroduction of this practice, which is known to be discriminatory and error-ridden, is appalling."
Kemp's implementation of the rule, as Common Dreamsreported Thursday, was described as the "definition of a rigged system" by NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, has said she is "deeply worried" that tens of thousands of Georgians are being stripped of their constitutional rights and Abigail Collazo, a spokesperson for her campaign, said "Kemp is maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters."
\u201cIf the full protections of the Voting Rights Act were still intact, Secretary Brian Kemp could not have gotten away with his latest voter suppression measure. -@KristenClarkeJD in @nytimes https://t.co/6RKiWRfI4e\u201d— Lawyers' Committee \u260e\ufe0f866-OUR-VOTE (@Lawyers' Committee \u260e\ufe0f866-OUR-VOTE) 1539370025
In a tweet on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders urged every single U.S. voter to "vigorously protest this outrageous action" in Georgia.
\u201cIn Georgia, in order to try to win the election there, cowardly Republicans are blatantly suppressing the vote and denying many African Americans the right to participate in the election. Every American must vigorously protest this outrageous action. https://t.co/UyTYfJJteR\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1539369355
Sanders linked to an op-ed by New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who argues that "Kemp's apparent attempt to rig the Georgia election shows in microcosm how democracy in America is failing."
\u201cThis outrageous attack on voting rights shows just how vital it is to restore the Voting Rights Act to full strength. Voting is a fundamental right, and we must secure it for every American.\n \nhttps://t.co/iLCmDONbv7\u201d— Vice President Kamala Harris (@Vice President Kamala Harris) 1539371113
According to Jay Michaelson, writing for The Daily Beast, the Republican Party continues to wield their "secret weapon" of voter suppression nationwide like a dagger and a sledgehammer, including these five anti-democratic tactics in use in various states ahead of the upcoming mid-terms:
As Michaelson notes, each one of these tactics "alone is troubling" but taken in aggregate, "they paint an unmistakable picture of Republican efforts to hold on to power in an increasingly non-white nation by making it harder for non-white people to vote."
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to Kemp as Georgia's Attorney General. That error has been fixed. He is the Secretary of State.
Civil rights groups have filed a new lawsuit in order to stop a statewide voter suppression effort in Georgia after the GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp--who just happens to be the state's Secretary of State as well--led an effort to purge more than 50,000 voter registrations, predominately of black voters, from the rolls just weeks before the November 6 election.
Led by the Georgia Coalition of the People's Agenda, the local NAACP, and other civil rights groups, the suit (pdf) seeks to halt enforcement of the so-called "exact match" rule that allows the state to purge registrations if any part of their name or other information does not match existing documents.
"Georgia's 'exact match' protocol has resulted in the cancellation or rejection of tens of thousands of voter registration applications in the past," said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, also party to the suit. "The reintroduction of this practice, which is known to be discriminatory and error-ridden, is appalling."
Kemp's implementation of the rule, as Common Dreamsreported Thursday, was described as the "definition of a rigged system" by NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, has said she is "deeply worried" that tens of thousands of Georgians are being stripped of their constitutional rights and Abigail Collazo, a spokesperson for her campaign, said "Kemp is maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters."
\u201cIf the full protections of the Voting Rights Act were still intact, Secretary Brian Kemp could not have gotten away with his latest voter suppression measure. -@KristenClarkeJD in @nytimes https://t.co/6RKiWRfI4e\u201d— Lawyers' Committee \u260e\ufe0f866-OUR-VOTE (@Lawyers' Committee \u260e\ufe0f866-OUR-VOTE) 1539370025
In a tweet on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders urged every single U.S. voter to "vigorously protest this outrageous action" in Georgia.
\u201cIn Georgia, in order to try to win the election there, cowardly Republicans are blatantly suppressing the vote and denying many African Americans the right to participate in the election. Every American must vigorously protest this outrageous action. https://t.co/UyTYfJJteR\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1539369355
Sanders linked to an op-ed by New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who argues that "Kemp's apparent attempt to rig the Georgia election shows in microcosm how democracy in America is failing."
\u201cThis outrageous attack on voting rights shows just how vital it is to restore the Voting Rights Act to full strength. Voting is a fundamental right, and we must secure it for every American.\n \nhttps://t.co/iLCmDONbv7\u201d— Vice President Kamala Harris (@Vice President Kamala Harris) 1539371113
According to Jay Michaelson, writing for The Daily Beast, the Republican Party continues to wield their "secret weapon" of voter suppression nationwide like a dagger and a sledgehammer, including these five anti-democratic tactics in use in various states ahead of the upcoming mid-terms:
As Michaelson notes, each one of these tactics "alone is troubling" but taken in aggregate, "they paint an unmistakable picture of Republican efforts to hold on to power in an increasingly non-white nation by making it harder for non-white people to vote."
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to Kemp as Georgia's Attorney General. That error has been fixed. He is the Secretary of State.
Civil rights groups have filed a new lawsuit in order to stop a statewide voter suppression effort in Georgia after the GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp--who just happens to be the state's Secretary of State as well--led an effort to purge more than 50,000 voter registrations, predominately of black voters, from the rolls just weeks before the November 6 election.
Led by the Georgia Coalition of the People's Agenda, the local NAACP, and other civil rights groups, the suit (pdf) seeks to halt enforcement of the so-called "exact match" rule that allows the state to purge registrations if any part of their name or other information does not match existing documents.
"Georgia's 'exact match' protocol has resulted in the cancellation or rejection of tens of thousands of voter registration applications in the past," said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, also party to the suit. "The reintroduction of this practice, which is known to be discriminatory and error-ridden, is appalling."
Kemp's implementation of the rule, as Common Dreamsreported Thursday, was described as the "definition of a rigged system" by NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, has said she is "deeply worried" that tens of thousands of Georgians are being stripped of their constitutional rights and Abigail Collazo, a spokesperson for her campaign, said "Kemp is maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters."
\u201cIf the full protections of the Voting Rights Act were still intact, Secretary Brian Kemp could not have gotten away with his latest voter suppression measure. -@KristenClarkeJD in @nytimes https://t.co/6RKiWRfI4e\u201d— Lawyers' Committee \u260e\ufe0f866-OUR-VOTE (@Lawyers' Committee \u260e\ufe0f866-OUR-VOTE) 1539370025
In a tweet on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders urged every single U.S. voter to "vigorously protest this outrageous action" in Georgia.
\u201cIn Georgia, in order to try to win the election there, cowardly Republicans are blatantly suppressing the vote and denying many African Americans the right to participate in the election. Every American must vigorously protest this outrageous action. https://t.co/UyTYfJJteR\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1539369355
Sanders linked to an op-ed by New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who argues that "Kemp's apparent attempt to rig the Georgia election shows in microcosm how democracy in America is failing."
\u201cThis outrageous attack on voting rights shows just how vital it is to restore the Voting Rights Act to full strength. Voting is a fundamental right, and we must secure it for every American.\n \nhttps://t.co/iLCmDONbv7\u201d— Vice President Kamala Harris (@Vice President Kamala Harris) 1539371113
According to Jay Michaelson, writing for The Daily Beast, the Republican Party continues to wield their "secret weapon" of voter suppression nationwide like a dagger and a sledgehammer, including these five anti-democratic tactics in use in various states ahead of the upcoming mid-terms:
As Michaelson notes, each one of these tactics "alone is troubling" but taken in aggregate, "they paint an unmistakable picture of Republican efforts to hold on to power in an increasingly non-white nation by making it harder for non-white people to vote."
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to Kemp as Georgia's Attorney General. That error has been fixed. He is the Secretary of State.
