ATLANTA — Members of the Stacey Abrams campaign once again had strong words for former Secretary of State Brian Kemp following a court hearing regarding the counting of provisional and absentee ballots that they claim could be "rejected for arbitrary reasons."
"Just a week ago today, we saw the most chaotic, poorly administered election potentially in the history of the state overseen by former Secretary of State Brian Kemp who used his taxpayer-funded secretary of state office as an arm of his campaign," Stacey Abrams campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo said. "And due to that, we saw Georgia voters waiting three to four hours to cast a ballot."
Those explosive accusations come after the Georgia Democratic Party filed one of the latest lawsuits on Sunday against acting Secretary of State Robyn Crittenden and members of the boards of election in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties. It also echoes previous calls from the party that every vote be counted.
"On Sunday evening, we learned that another 6,000 votes had been reported," Groh-Wargo said. "Of those 6,000 votes, about 80 percent of them were for Stacey Abrams. These were not votes that any of us standing here knew about. Some of them were provisional but some of them were early votes and mail votes coming out of counties that had been labeled as 100 percent reported."
The new lawsuit claims a violation of the several portions of the first and fourteenth amendments concerning absentee and provisional ballots.
"This afternoon we had a productive hearing in front of Judge Jones who's promised to try to issue a ruling by 12-noon tomorrow," attorney Kurt Kastorf said. "And we're optimistic we'll obtain at least some of the relief we were seeking."
He reiterated that in the last two business days, three federal judges had identified "constitutional infirmities" with Georgia elections.
"Now, tomorrow, there's a possibility that there will be four judges in three days," he said. "We're proud that we are making progress in voting rights in Georgia by winning these lawsuits. But at some point, Georgians need to ask themselves when is enough, enough? What is acceptable in this process."
The conference also follows a large protest inside the Capitol rotunda where protesters were calling for a complete count of votes in Georgia's tightest races. In that protest, several people were arrested including one state senator.
"Today, there were people who came to the Capitol to raise this issue, to the people's house in fact, and State Senator Nikema Williams was arrested by standing peacefully with her constituents," Groh-Wargo said. "And they were literally only asking to be heard - demanding that this state count every vote."
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