ATLANTA — Ebenezer Baptist Church has joined multiple other religious institutions in a lawsuit over Georgia election issues.
Ebenezer joins Baconton Missionary Baptist Church, Virginia Highland Church and the Sixth Episcopal District in the newly-amended lawsuit that revolves around issues in the 2018 statewide elections, and is tied to Fair Fight Action.
The organization was started by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams shortly after the results were finalized and opponent Brian Kemp was named the winner in the extremely tight governor's race.
The organization has since pushed for legal action against the state, with Abrams at the front of the charge claiming several issues tied to voter suppression.
The lawsuit claims that the Secretary of State's Office and State Board of Elections violated Georgians' right to vote, the ban on racial discrimination in voting, the right to equal protection, the right to procedural due process, a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
Over several pages, the suit goes over multiple accusations of irregularities and general mishandling of the election by the office, previously held by Gov. Kemp.
One of the biggest issues brought up in the suit is what it describes as a "use it or lose it" approach to voter eligibility after voters who hadn't recently voted were allegedly turned away at the polls.
The lawsuit demands the state discontinue this practice, calling it unconstitutional in any case where the person is otherwise eligible to vote.
The suit also calls out an "exact match" policy that the plaintiffs claim led to the purge of "thousands of voters" from the rolls.
The suit also wants to see the removal of current voting machines "that lack a paper trail" and the replacement of these machines with ones that have paper ballots counted by optical scanners.
It also goes into great detail in suggesting ways that Georgia officials should enforce a uniform policy for election vote-counting and verification across the state. In doing so, it also calls out issues from early voting and the November election itself where some precincts had long lines while others lacked the appropriate number of voting machines.
Outside of requesting the coverage of attorney fees, the lawsuit makes no direct monetary requests except for "further relief as the Court may deem just and proper."
