Stacey Abrams didn’t win Georgia’s gubernatorial election, but that doesn’t mean she’s not going to have statewide impact on policy reform. Abrams has joined allies led by Fair Fight Action and Care in Action to challenge Georgia’s election system—the whole thing.
They want the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to declare that the state’s elections process violates the constitutional rights to vote, to be free of racial discrimination in voting, and to equal protection. FFACA would further like the court to specify that Georgia’s process violates the Voting Rights Act. And they want the court to monitor Georgia until its election system comes into compliance.
As far as specific policy changes go, the suit asks the court to kill the “use it or lose it” policy behind Georgia’s mass voter purge and reinstate those unconstitutionally harmed by it. During the election, then-secretary of state now Gov.-elect Brian Kemp used this policy to purge more than 300,000 voters from the rolls for not having voted recently enough or not responding to a mailing.
In the same vein, the suit calls on the court to strike the “exact match” rule requiring ballot signatures to match those on file.
FFACA’s also asking for the court to officially and legally call Georgia out for failures surrounding voting machines, provisional ballots, and the statewide voter registration list. The filing argues that the state should have to switch from machines that don’t leave a paper trail to those that do. It also spells out 13 requirements for reforming Georgia’s election oversight, from training to reporting.
Last of all, FFACA & Co. ask the court to pen a permanent requirement that Georgia’s secretary of state and election board “ensure each county conducts efficient, just, and fair elections.” Granted, Georgia’s saying they already meet that standard. If Abrams and FFACA prevail, however, it’ll be a judge, not an elected official, who ensures that Georgians know what efficient, just, and fair elections actually look like.