Stacey Abrams speaks out on Columbus voter eligibility, criticizes Secretary of State
Stacey Abrams defended her sister, federal judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, after Georgia’s top election official criticized her ruling that Muscogee County couldn’t require more than 4,000 voters to prove they can legally vote in Columbus.
“(Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner) issued a temporary restraining order based on the law and she is going to follow the law and make a decision based on what the law allows,” Abrams said during a Columbus appearance Wednesday. “She and I talk about a lot of things. We don’t talk about her job. ...She has proven herself to be an ethical leader.”
Judge Gardner issued the order Tuesday to stop the challenges in Muscogee and Ben Hill counties after Majority Forward, a Democratic Party-aligned group, filed a lawsuit against the counties’ election boards Dec. 23 on behalf of Gamaliel Warren Turner Sr., a government contractor with the U.S. Navy temporarily living in California for work.
Challenging voters
Turner was one of the roughly 4,000 voters whose residency was challenged by Muscogee County Republican Chair Alton Russell.
Russell’s Dec. 14 challenge and the county election board’s decision to accept it sparked the lawsuit. Gardner argued in her order that such a removal, as requested by Russell, was prevented by the National Voter Registration Act.
The Columbus residency challenge comes as the Georgia Republican Party and Texas-based organization True the Vote have challenged more than 364,000 voters listed on a U.S. Postal Service list showing their addresses had changed. Russell denied Tuesday that True the Vote played a role in his Columbus voter challenge.
“This isn’t happening because Republicans in Georgia are combing through these lists,” Abrams said. “True the Vote is a national organization that has made it its mission to intimidate voters for decades. ...Their decision to challenge voters in the last week, in the last few days of an election is nothing short of voter suppression.”
A ‘blow to the rule of law’
In a statement Tuesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the ruling was a “blow to rule of law” and referred to Abrams as a “failed gubernatorial candidate.”
Raffensperger also highlighted the relationship between Abrams and the group that brought the lawsuit forward.
Abrams’ voting rights group, Fair Fight, donated $2.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic political action committee on Nov. 18, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Senate Majority PAC is affiliated with Majority Forward, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“That a judge would rule on a case brought by a group heavily funded by her sister is very concerning,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
Abrams responded to Raffensperger’s statements Wednesday, accusing the state’s top election official of attempting to deflect attention away from his office after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that state voting system implementation manager Gabriel Sterling is not a state employee but a government contractor who makes $200,000 a year.
“Brad Raffensperger is bad at his job,” Abrams said. “And he has a terrible history of any time he gets caught in a scandal, he deflects to me. ...My only mission is to ensure he does his job, and I’m sorry it concerns him that when he fails at his job, people notice.”
Lawyers representing Muscogee County’s election board have filed a motion opposing the temporary restraining order, so the challenge can continue. A court hearing was scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Abrams appeared in Columbus at Creme De La Creme Catering and Diner Wednesday morning to talk to small business owners about how COVID-19 impacted their business and to discuss the upcoming Senate runoffs.
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reporter Tim Chitwood contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Stacey Abrams speaks out on Columbus voter eligibility, criticizes Secretary of State."