the midterms continue
Democrat Stacey Abrams may fight for a new election in the Georgia governor's race
President Trump last week floated the idea of a "new election" in Arizona. But now, it's Democrat Stacey Abrams who may be pushing for that option in Georgia.
Republican Brian Kemp currently holds an 18,000-vote lead over Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial election, but with the official state certification of the results possibly coming on Friday, The Associated Press reports that Abrams' campaign is preparing an "unprecedented legal challenge" that could involve pushing for a new vote.
Abrams would be challenging the result by saying there was "misconduct, fraud, or irregularities," enough "to change or place in doubt the results," as outlined in Georgia election law. Her team would then assemble affidavits from voters who say they were disenfranchised. Abrams accused Kemp of voter suppression throughout the campaign; in one example, tens of thousands of voters' registrations were put on hold because information on their applications wasn't an exact match with information in voter databases. There were also reports on Election Day of long lines, a problem exacerbated by some technical issues in the state's second-largest county, and voters not being offered provisional ballots when they should have been.
If Abrams' team took this case to court, their argument would be that as many as 18,000 voters could have been disenfranchised; had Abrams received that many additional votes, she would be able to force a runoff election in December. Abrams' lawyers, however, say no decisions have been finalized and they are "considering all options," one of which would involve a judge reopening the certified results to address potential irregularities. Kemp declared victory last week, and his campaign argues Abrams is trying to "count illegal votes" and that his lead is too great for any remaining uncounted ballots to make a difference.