UNCOVERDC by: Wendi Strauch-Mahoney 11/09/2023
On December 23, 2020, just before Georgia's January 5, 2021, U.S. Senate run-off election, Fair Fight filed a lawsuit against True the Vote (TTV) for challenging the eligibility of "more than 250,000 voters" prior to the run-off, according to Fair the Vote attorneys in Tuesday's closing arguments. Fair Fight stated that TTV was "reckless" with its Electoral Challenges and that challenging voter rolls "have serious implications with regard to the right to vote." In summary, Fair Fight believes challenging voter rolls is an act of voter suppression.
Fair Fight's multi-year lawsuit with TTV ended on November 7 after a 9-day bench trial in the U.S. Northern District of Georgia that began on October 26 with Judge Steve Jones presiding. UncoverDC was present for the last day and a half of the trial, hearing testimony from witnesses for the defense and closing arguments from attorneys. In January 2021, right before the run-off, the same judge ruled against Fair Fight's request "to stop True the Vote's work that simply follows the procedure outlined in state law," according to TTV's press release on January 2, 2021.
Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of TTV, testified on Monday that it was "Georgia citizens who solicited TTV's help" to ensure the state's voter rolls were adequately maintained for Georgia's senate run-offs. TTV announced its intention to "pre-emptively challenge 364,541 potentially ineligible voters" in all 159 counties ahead of the Senate run-off elections in a press release on December 18, 2020. However, Engelbrecht told UncoverDC on Wednesday that her organization was "ultimately left with volunteers in 65 counties who were willing to file Electoral Challenges. That is where the '250 thousand voters' number quoted by Fair Fight comes from." Engelbrecht added that she believed "only four counties ended up actually using the challenges."
Stacey Abrams founded Fair Fight after losing to Kemp in 2018. During CNN's broadcast of State of the Union on January 3, 2021, Abrams told host Jake Tapper that TTV's challenges are an example of "voter suppression," according to a TTV press release. Abrams stated, "Any attempt to prevent or discourage a voter from casting a ballot is voter suppression." Unchallenged by Tapper at the time, Abrams used the bogus examples of deployed military and college students as those who would be targeted by TTV as voters to challenge. Engelbrecht made it abundantly clear at the time that military and college students were "excluded from the challenger wherever known." Engelbrecht also testified the same on Monday. Abrams also tried to gaslight viewers with the idea that voters could be deemed "invalid" or removed from voter rolls. Engelbrecht told UncoverDC that "Abrams ducked the subpoena and failed to show up" for the trial.
Georgia CODE ANN. § 21-2-230 stipulates that an Elector Challenge must be filed before a vote is cast. TTV's December 18 press release notes an Elector Challenge "does not remove voter names from the registry. Voters who have been challenged will have the opportunity via GA. CODE ANN. § 21-2-230 to prove eligibility and still have their vote counted in the upcoming run-off election."
At the time of the 2021 Senate run-offs, the last time Georgia updated its voter rolls was in 2019. In Georgia, voter rolls are "cleaned" in the first six months of every odd year. The most recent update was in 2023 when Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger placed"a total of 191, 473 voter records into 'inactive status' based on returned mail and the NCOA list," according to reporting from Atlanta News First. Raffensperger claims Georgia's voter rolls"are the cleanest in the nation." Fair Fight is not the only organization that believes voter roll maintenance suppresses voters. Atlanta News First also wrote that a"coalition of 61 advocacy and civic engagement organizations opposed Raffensperger's plan to remove the voters."
Fair Fight Alleges TTV Was RecklessThe 2020 election, according to Engelbrecht's testimony, created an atmosphere of distrust in elections because Secretaries of State were suddenly side-stepping election laws to allegedly ensure a "safe" election because of the "pandemic." Americans saw "a massive push to mail-in ballots, drop boxes, and many changes at polling places. Mail-in voting is the least secure way to vote," Engelbrecht continued. Mail-in ballots are not secure "because of chain of custody issues, poor signature verification, standards in postmarks [pertaining to voting deadlines], and the fact that mail-in ballots" were sent out en masse without regard to the voter's eligibility. "Inaccurate voter rolls compounded the problem," said Engelbrecht. Distressed citizens in Georgia came forward, contacted TTV, and the Elector Challenge project was born.
More:
https://uncoverdc.com/2023/11/09/elector-challenges-in-georgia-voter-intimidation-or-civic-duty
