Georgia GOP’s long and troubling history of minority voter suppression has finally garnered national media attention now that its Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is one of the state’s voter suppression kingpins is running for Governor against a historic Dem challenger Stacey Abrams. There is intense media scrutiny on the Georgia gubernatorial race because if Dem Stacey Abrams wins, she will become the first female Black Governor of a U.S. State.
One would think that given the intense media scrutiny surrounding the GA governor’s race, GOP’s Brian Kemp would work tirelessly to hide his troubling voter suppression past. Instead we are witnessing the complete opposite. Just a few weeks ago, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow exposed a scheme by Brian Kemp’s office to take away the vote of 53,000 predominantly black voters.
GA Secretary of State Brian Kemp has also resisted calls by his Dem challenger Stacey Abrams and others for him to resign from his role as Secretary of State while he is running for Governor. Any reasonable person would agree that there is an inherent conflict of interest to have a candidate running for Governor while at the same time presiding over the state’s elections.
As if Brian Kemp’s troubling voter suppression past and his apparent conflict of interest are not enough, we now find out that literally 2 days before the November elections, his office has opened an investigation into GA Democrats for alleged “cyber crimes”.
Kemp’s office opens investigation into Georgia Dems for unspecified “cyber crimes” https://t.co/tqoFb0SkH9 pic.twitter.com/E0m9zUE8jJ
— The Hill (@thehill) November 4, 2018
GA Secretary of State Press Secretary Candice Broce said, “While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes.” If this is not the latest attempt by Brian Kemp’s office to kill Dem voter enthusiasm 2 days before the elections, I don’t know what is.
Bottom line, regardless of how the GA gubernatorial race turns out this coming Tuesday, Brian Kemp’s voter suppression tactics must be severely confronted. Simply put, no public official should ever be allowed to tinker with people’s right to vote with seemingly no consequences, as Brian Kemp has. If he is declared GA Governor on Tuesday, Stacey Abrams must immediately challenge those results. If however, Kemp and Abrams end up in a run-ff(most likely scenario), the Abrams campaign must strongly insist that he step aside as Secretary of State. He must not be allowed to run for Governor while his office investigates his challenger.
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