GA voting rights lawsuit targets GOP’s Kemp
U.S. voting rights advocacy groups are suing Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, accusing him of putting more than 50,000 voter registration applications on hold to boost his gubernatorial campaign. Linda So reports.
Voting rights advocates are crying foul in Georgia’s highest-profile state race.
A coalition of state civil rights groups are suing the states’s top election official, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, accusing him of putting more than 50,000 voter registration applications on hold to boost his gubernatorial campaign.
Kemp, a Republican, is running against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who would become Georgia’s first black governor if elected.
The lawsuit accuses Kemp of trying to depress minority turnout to improve his chances of victory.
Georgia is one of several states with a so-called “exact match” law.
It requires that personal information on voter applications match exactly, the information in state databases, such as name and driver’s license number.
A missed hyphen or skipped middle name can be enough to get a voter placed on a pending list.
A Reuters analysis of people on that list between August 2013 and February 2018 found more than two-thirds were black.
The lawsuit is seeking to stop enforcement of the exact match law.
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