ATLANTA -- An investigation is underway into claims of voter fraud involving the state's highest ranking Democratic elected official.
The Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office launched an investigation after they allegedly received complaints of possible voter fraud from election offices in nearly a dozen counties.
"Our investigators were talking to the counties and to individuals who'd had their names forged on voter registration documents," Kemp said. "You know that's fraud."
Kemp's office has slapped Rep. Stacey Abrams' organization, the New Georgia Project with a subpoena. demanding that they turn over all documents related to their efforts to "register voters, store voter information, contact voters or any other canvassing project."
Abrams says her organization has registered more than 85,000 new voters, and has responded aggressively to any reports of canvassers who may have filled out forms inaccurately or fraudulently.
"Our answer is we fire the people who made the mistake and make sure we improve our training," Abrams said. "That's what we've done every single time."
While declining to give a number of potentially fraudulent registration forms, Kemp says he's simply trying to insure the integrity of the election process.
"We pride ourselves on making sure we have secure, accessible, fair elections," Kemp said. "We want to make it easy for people to vote and hard to cheat."
Abrams said that she doesn't know what's motivating the investigation.
"I'm deeply concerned that he would use this as an opportunity to put a chilling effect on voter registration," Abrams said.
Abrams has until Sept. 16 to comply with the subpoena, which would require her to turn over virtually every single document ever generated by her organization. She describes it as a fishing expedition and says she is still weighing her options.
