2018 Georgia election law upheld after challenge by Stacey Abrams’ group

ATLANTA — A federal judge upheld Georgia’s election laws in a ruling issued Friday night that dealt a blow to Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams and also the state’s Democratic nominee for gubernatorial government.

Abrams’ group filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s foreign minister shortly after her election defeat in 2018, arguing that Georgia’s mail-in voting policy – which requires an “exact match” of names and addresses between voter IDs and voter registration records – constitutes “gross mismanagement” of voters the state electoral systems that violated the constitutional rights of Georgia voters.

However, a federal judge ruled in favor of the state, saying the law was valid and the “voter burden was relatively light.”

“Although Georgia’s electoral system is not perfect, the practices attacked do not violate either the constitution or the [Voting Rights Act]’ wrote U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones in his decision.

“The Court finds that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that the charges imposed by [exact match] the state’s interest in fraud prevention prevails,” wrote Jones, an appointee for President Barack Obama, in his decision.

Georgia’s “exact match” system has put the voter registration of nearly 50,000 Georgians on hold ahead of the 2018 elections. Abrams’ group argued the law was racially discriminatory because 70 percent of those whose registrations were suspended were black.

The Fair Fight Action, Inc. v. Raffensperger case brought into question a number of issues, including the difficulties naturalized US citizens faced in voting due to delays in updating state records. The lawsuit also argued that poll workers received improper or incomplete training on how to cancel absentee ballots from voters who say they never received them. This caused confusion and frustration at many polling stations in 2018.

Plaintiffs cited other problems with the law, including the registration process for those with felony convictions; the state system for merging records; and the process of removing the names of the deceased from the electoral rolls.

Jones ruled that Fair Fight did not provide “direct evidence of a voter who couldn’t vote, had longer wait times, was confused about voter registration status because he was there.” [exact match] status or experienced increased scrutiny in the elections due [exact match]”Politics.

He added that the state’s justifications for using several practices alleged in the lawsuit “outweigh any potential burden on voters.”

After the decision was issued, Georgia Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger (R) called the allegations made in the lawsuit “nothing but poll-tested rhetoric unsupported by facts and evidence”.

Some of the guidelines raised in the lawsuit — including “exact match” — have largely been abandoned since the 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Georgia’s electoral rules have also been revised several times since the lawsuit was filed, most notably in a comprehensive 2021 electoral law that tightened voter ID requirements; additional restrictions on applying for absentee ballots; limited use of Dropboxes; and expanded the power of state legislatures over local electoral policy.

The decision comes five weeks before Abram’s rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who oversaw the 2018 state election for secretary of state and won the race by nearly 55,000 votes.

“From day one, Abrams has used this lawsuit to line her pockets, sow distrust in our democratic institutions, and build her own notoriety,” Kemp said in a statement accompanying the decision. “Judge Jones’ ruling exposes this legal effort for what it really is: a tool employed by a politician hoping to unfairly arm the legal system to further her own political ends.”

Abrams criticized the court’s 288-page ruling, saying it “explicitly lays out the dangers of a system fraught with barriers that disproportionately hit Blacks and Browns.”

“Imperfection is no excuse for the discriminatory practices Georgians saw at the foreign minister’s office in the 2018 election,” she said in a statement on Friday.

Fair Fight Executive Director Cianti Stewart-Reid said the decision was “undoubtedly a significant loss to the voting rights community in Georgia and across the country,” but vowed that Fair Fight would continue programs to register voters and educate them about the election process will.

“Litigation is just one tool in the fight against voter suppression,” Stewart-Reid said.