Kemp doing terrible job at suppressing votes, if that is actually what he’s doing

It is silly that it must be said, but no, Brian Kemp is not an enemy of democracy. That was an op-ed headline in The New York Times. Carol Anderson, the chair of African American Studies at Emory University, penned the piece. She has also penned such popular hits as “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide” and “Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960.”

The New York Times op-ed tries to lay the groundwork for Stacey Abrams’ upcoming defeat through a two-pronged attack on Kemp. According to the attack, Kemp has denied 30,000 mostly minority voter registrations and has thrown numerous people off the rolls. Additionally, voter integrity systems in Georgia are insecure and the Russians are coming.

This second attack is already being echoed by the campaigns of several Democrat candidates nationwide, including the incumbent senator from Florida, Bill Nelson, who is behind in the polls and screaming about the Russians stealing the election. Consider this in juxtaposition to the first attack. With a straight face, Kemp’s opponents argue he is moving too aggressively to stop people from voting, but our systems are so flawed the Russians are going to steal the election.

Here are the facts. The various boards of elections around the state have rejected 30,000 voter registration forms for not matching driver’s licenses or other state data. This was done not by the secretary of state, but by local boards of elections often in heavily Democrat areas. The secretary of state defended the rejections. Many of those rejected were from a nonprofit project organized by Abrams. The law does not require the secretary of state and local boards of election to accept voter registration paperwork when the people filling out the paperwork get basic data wrong.

As to suppressing minority votes in Georgia, the data do not hold up. According to a review by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, between 2006 and 2010, black voter registration numbers increased 44 percent and Hispanic voter registration numbers increased 67 percent. White voter registration numbers only increased by 12 percent. That was to be expected with Barack Obama’s political rise. That was also during Republican Karen Handel’s tenure as secretary of state. What about during Kemp’s tenure?

The AJC reviewed that data, too. Through 2016, “An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of voter registration data shows minority voter registration rose 23 percent. White registration rose 15 percent, and still accounts for nearly 57 percent of the state’s voters.” If Kemp is actively denying black people the right to vote, he is doing a pretty terrible job of it. Note also that requiring a photo ID has not been an obstacle to minority voter participation.

What is missing from the voter suppression arguments is a crucial fact. In 2001, Congress passed the bipartisan Help America Vote Act. The law requires state secretaries of state clean and purge voter rolls of inactive voters. Georgia is actually far less aggressive in throwing people off the rolls than some states. All the claims that Kemp tosses people from the rolls ignores that he is required to do so by a federal law supported by both Democrats and Republicans.

That Abrams supporters are already out screaming about Kemp denying people the right to vote and claiming the Russians are going to steal the election is just the best proof yet they know she will not win in November. Instead, they’re trying to explain to donors that it was not her fault.

Erick Erickson is host of Atlanta’s Evening News on WSB Radio.