Civil rights groups have teamed up to submit a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for voter suppression.
The suit comes in reaction to a policy in Georgia that forbids new voter registrations from being submitted if the submitted information isn't a precise match to the information in Georgia's license or social security database.
As the attorneys allege, even slightly differing information would result in an application being thrown out:
“Under this ‘exact match’ protocol, the transposition of a single letter or number, deletion or addition of a hyphen or apostrophe, the accidental entry of an extra character or space, and the use of a familiar name like ‘Tom’ instead of ‘Thomas’ will cause a no match result.”
The Abrams campaign says the blame is with Brian Kemp, with a spokeswoman saying:
"As he has done for years, Brian Kemp is maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters -- the majority of them people of color,"
Scrutiny of the policy has seen a huge uptick during a competitive gubernatorial election in the state between Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Democratic former Congresswoman Stacy Abrams. As a result of Georgia's policy, 53,000 voter registrations are stalled, with nearly 70 percent of those voters being African-American. In a race that's anyone's game and a candidate who would be the first black female governor of Georgia, the policy would likely be the one negatively affected.
Americans are supporting the move:
The numbers of suppressed votes in an election this close could result in a sway of the entire election.
Polls in the election have shown a pin's distance between the two candidates.
Current polls show Kemp with a 47.7 percent lead to Abram's 46.6 percent—far below the 2.8 percent margin of error.
Abrams, a lawyer and former congresswoman, has captured the hearts of Americans everywhere since the start of her campaign, with many viewing her candidacy and her possibility of winning emerging as a symbol of hope for Georgians everywhere.
And even Bette Midler.
The razor thin race and the incumbent candidate's allowance of voter suppression is yet another reason for Americans to be mindful of November 6 and America's future as a whole.
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