Republican Brian Kemp offered his sharpest response yet to litigation filed by voting rights groups targeting his office's use of exact-match standards that have left more than 50,000 potential voters in a form of limbo.
Kemp, who as secretary of state oversees elections, told WSB’s Scott Slade on Monday that about three-quarters of the names on the state’s “pending” list failed a federal match standard because their last four Social Security numbers didn’t match their voter registration applications.
Kemp said another 14 percent of the “pending” names have been on the list since the 2014 midterms, and an unspecified number had moved or were deceased.
“Stacey Abrams is accusing me of following the law,” he said, adding: “When people hear the truth, they’re going to be outraged that Stacey Abrams is lying to them.”
The potential voters are in "pending" status because election officials couldn't verify information submitted with registration applications. But they will still be allowed to cast ballots this year if they show photo ID that proves they're eligible to vote.
Democrat Stacey Abrams has used the lawsuit to paint Kemp as part of a "pattern of misconduct" in the state's top elections office that also includes accidental disclosure of confidential voter information to news outlets and political parties and the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of voter registrations.
But Democrats are also navigating tricky territory, because they don’t want to signal to supporters who often skip midterms that they shouldn’t bother to vote. At a Sunday event, Abrams encouraged her supporters to “make people tell you no.”
“My daddy told me, ‘You don’t tell yourself no. You let someone else tell you,’” she said. “Everybody who is eligible to vote, needs to go and try and vote. If they are not permitted to vote, they need to call 866-OUR-VOTE.”
In an interview, Kemp said that the incorrect Social Security numbers were a sign that applicants either “made the number up or messed the number up.” And he highlighted one of the applications that had the name “Jesus” from “Heaven Street.”
“As much as I’d like to register Jesus to vote in Georgia,” he said, “the law says I can’t do that.”
Read the backstory: The right to vote becomes a heated battle in Georgia governor’s race
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Just as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was stumping with Brian Kemp, Stacey Abrams was across town attracting droves of media attention by casting an early ballot.
Democrats are trying to get a giant head-start in the race for Georgia governor by building up a big lead in early voting totals. And so far there’s been a tremendous surge in voter participation.
Nearly three times more people voted in the first week of early voting compared with the same time in the last midterm election. And the number of Georgians who voted ramped up throughout the week, despite reports of three-hour lines in some areas.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean Democrats will benefit from the increase. While Democratic strongholds were flooded with voters, so were conservative bastions like Bartow, Catoosa, Cherokee and Forsyth counties.
Some Republican strategists still expect Democrats to win the early vote, partly because conservatives are often more likely to vote on Election Day. But they’re emboldened by the recent state data.
Abrams, meanwhile, focused on the more than 150,000 early voters who did not vote in the 2014 election. Her campaign for governor depends on her intensive field operation to drive out voters, many of whom are minorities, who generally skip midterm elections.
“We have to be better for all of Georgia,” she said. “And my campaign is reaching out to every corner of the state, every county, every community. And we’re going to harness votes that are normally left out of the conversation.”
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Georgia Democrats plan a press conference Tuesday to highlight Brian Kemp's private calendar and polling the party said will show "serious concerns" about overseeing his own election.
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Brian Kemp and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio enjoyed some verbal jousting about next week's Georgia-Florida showdown in Jacksonville.
Kemp, a die-hard Bulldog fan who plans to campaign in the area on Saturday, introduced Rubio with this friendly dig:
“It is my honor to have a great Floridian in the great state of Georgia to recognize that the Dawgs are going to win the game.”
Rubio, a Florida graduate, had the last word. He told a crowded room of voters at the White House restaurant they “probably shouldn’t even watch the game on Saturday because you’re not going to like it.”
He added, with a wink: “You should be knocking on doors instead.”
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