Judges Are Doing All They Can To Keep Brian Kemp From Stealing the Georgia Election
Federal judges have been a thorn in the side of Brian Kemp.
The Friday before the midterm elections, U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross ruled that the Georgia secretary of state’s controversial “exact match” voting law was discriminatory, ordering him to change it after expressing “grave concerns” about the “differential treatment inflicted on a group of individuals who are predominantly minorities.” As expected, Kemp’s gubernatorial race the following Tuesday against Democrat Stacey Abrams was too close to call, and as officials continue to sort through provisional ballots and otherwise unaccounted for votes, more federal judges have come down on the embattled Republican with a taste for voter suppression.
On Monday night, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ordered the certification of the election’s results be delayed, citing concerns over how Kemp managed the election as Georgia’s secretary of state, a position from which he has since resigned. Less than 24 hours later, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that Gwinnett County violated the Civili Rights Act in invalidating absentee ballots based on an omitted or incorrect birth year. Those ballots must now be counted.
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Totenberg’s ruling on Monday night didn’t come a moment too soon. Robyn Crittenden, the Republican who replaced Kemp as secretary of state, issued a statement last week clarifying that all counties must certify their election results by 5 p.m. on Tuesday. She was expected to certify the state-wide results on Wednesday. Totenberg’s ruling prevents Crittenden from certifying the results until 5 p.m. on Friday, and also calls for the state to set up a way for people who cast provisional ballots to check in on the status of their vote. Totenberg expressed concern over Crittenden’s rush to certify the election, which she wrote “appears to suggest the secretary’s foregoing of its responsibility to confirm the accuracy of the results prior to final certification, including the assessment of whether serious provisional balloting count issues have been consistently and properly handled.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/brian-kemp-georgia-votes-755280/