If you haven’t been paying attention to the Georgia gubernatorial and Senate races, you should. It’s shaping up to be quite interesting. Voter suppression tactics and all. WSB-TV reported late Tuesday night that there are allegations of voter registration fraud against a Democratic group, The New Georgia Project, which is linked to Ebenezer Baptist Church’s Rev. Raphael Warnock. The right wing pounced immediately.
The New Georgia Project was subpoenaed by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who happens to be a Republican. Kemp told WSB-TV that he received complaints from six counties about forgery on voter registration forms and that voters were being falsely told they were required by law to re-register.
Kemp told WSB-TV, “We’re just not going to put up with fraud. I mean, we have zero tolerance for that in Georgia so we’ve opened an investigation and served some subpoenas.” “At the end of the day this is not going to be about politics. This is about potential fraud which we think happened.”
Rev. Warnock issued a statement saying he hoped the investigation was “not intended to thwart efforts to enfranchise voters” in Georgia.
Of course, the Republicans pounced on this latest ‘revelation.’ Gov. Nathan Deal’s (who is mired in an ethics scandal) spokesman Brian Robinson tweeted that Democrat Jason Carter was tied to the allegations. David Perdue’s camp also pounced, with spokeswoman Megan Whittemore issuing the following statement:
The serious allegations of illegal activities and potential fraud from liberal voter registration groups are outrageous and should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. As outlined in Michelle Nunn’s well-documented campaign plan, since Democrats cannot win on the issues they are aggressively trying to expand the electorate by any means necessary. The fact that an organization led by a well-known Nunn supporter would attempt to illegally register voters is unacceptable and reminiscent of the Obama-political machine’s ACORN scandal. There is nothing more fundamental to our democratic process than maintaining the integrity of our elections and any attempt to tamper with them is deplorable.”
Um, with the upcoming November elections, the timing of the subpoena is very suspect. This comes as state Sen. Fran Millar pitched a hissy-fit over early voting in DeKalb county and the large numbers of black voters it would benefit. Yep, David Perdue’s people are invoking the word ACORN.
This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.