The trial will renew the debate over allegations of voter suppression in the governor’s final race ahead of a possible rematch between Abrams and Kemp over the next year. Abrams hasn’t revealed if she is running, but many Democrats expect her to take part in the race.
Prosecutors have stated that electoral practices in Georgia are fair and non-discriminatory, resulting in easy access to voting and a record turnout.
Plaintiffs will attempt to prove that the state’s electoral practices violate fundamental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If successful, Jones could order changes to voting in Georgia ahead of the 2022 general election.
“On February 7th, the votes of Georgia voters silenced by an unconstitutional and racially discriminatory system will be heard in a federal trial,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight Action. “We look forward to continuing to share the stories of the unconstitutional barriers they faced due to the Foreign Minister’s misconduct and deliberate indifference.”
Josh Belinfante, a prosecutor, said he was ready for trial after years of both sides collecting evidence and fighting in court.
“There is a discrepancy between the evidence and the arguments of the defendants,” Belinfante said. “We can go on with the records we have – the plaintiffs lack evidence.”
Part of the case will examine the “exact match” of voter registration practices in Georgia. Under “Exact Match”, election officials compare the information from the new registrants with the driver’s license and social security records. If there is a dispute, voters must check their information before they can cast their vote.
Minority voters are six to ten times more likely than white voters to be flagged for “exact match” by Georgia’s verification process, according to evidence cited in an order cited by Jones earlier this month.
A lawsuit would also investigate allegations that voter registration records were inaccurate, resulting in registered voters being unable to cast their votes. In addition, the lawsuit states that election officials are not properly trained to cancel postal votes, which creates difficulties for Georgians who later attempted to vote in person.
Jones previously dismissed many of Fair Fight’s lawsuits, ruling against challenges to registration cancellations, insufficient voting machines, inadequate training of electoral officers and the rejection of ballot papers.
However, Jones allowed the case to continue in the remaining cases and rejected efforts by the state to dismiss the entire case.
The lawsuit resulted in the restoration of 22,000 voter registrations in Georgia in late 2019 after court hearings over registrations were canceled. This year there were still 287,000 de-registrations from people who had not voted or had moved since 2012. Another 101,000 voter registrations were canceled that summer.
