Complaints of Voter Suppression Loom Over Georgia Governor’s Race

Tensions escalated in the already bitter race to be Georgia’s next governor on Thursday after reports that the state had placed tens of thousands of voters’ registrations on a “pending” list, fueling charges of voter suppression and election rigging.

The office of Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state and the Republican nominee for governor in November’s election, has stalled more than 53,000 voter applications, according to a recent report from The Associated Press. The list includes a disproportionately high number of black voters, the report said, which is stirring concern among nonpartisan voting rights advocates and supporters of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, who is vying to be the first black woman in the country to be elected governor.

On Thursday, several advocacy groups filed a lawsuit seeking to end the practice and force Georgia to reinstate affected voters. Filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Campaign Legal Center, the lawsuit alleges that the policy violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the First and Fourteenth Amendments. A spokesman for Mr. Kemp did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

Read the full article