Suppression': Critics charge Georgia GOP gov candidate purging voters before election
An analysis found most of those whose registrations are in limbo are black in a state where an African-American is vying for the Statehouse.
by Associated Press / Oct.10.2018 / 4:24 PM EDT
Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee for Georgia governor, speaks at a rally at the Classic Center in downtown Athens, Georgia on Oct. 9, 2108. The winning can all go away in an instant. That was the message that Donald Trump Jr. had for Georgia Republicans as he urged them to support Kemp for governorJoshua L. Jones / Athens Banner-Herald via AP
ATLANTA — Marsha Appling-Nunez was showing the college students she teaches how to check online if they're registered to vote when she made a troubling discovery. Despite being an active Georgia voter who had cast ballots in recent elections, she was no longer registered.
"I was kind of shocked," said Appling-Nunez, who moved from one Atlanta suburb to another in May and believed she had successfully changed her address on the voter rolls.
"I've always voted. I try to not miss any elections, including local ones," Appling-Nunez said.
She tried re-registering, but with about one month left before a November election that will decide a governor's race and some competitive U.S. House races, Appling-Nunez's application is one of over 53,000 sitting on hold with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office. And unlike Appling-Nunez, many people on that list — which is predominantly black, according to an analysis by The Associated Press — may not even know their voter registration has been held up.
Tuesday is Georgia's deadline to register and be eligible to vote in the November General Election.
Kemp, who's also the Republican candidate for governor, is in charge of elections and voter registration in Georgia.
His Democratic opponent, former state Rep. Stacey Abrams, and voting rights advocacy groups charge that Kemp is systematically using his office to suppress votes and tilt the election, and that his policies disproportionately affect black and minority voters.
Kemp denies it vehemently.
But through a process that Kemp calls voter roll maintenance and his opponents call voter roll purges, Kemp's office has cancelled over 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012. Nearly 670,000 registrations were cancelled in 2017 alone.
