Hundreds of absentee ballots have recently been rejected in Gwinnett County during the Brian Kemp versus Stacey Abrams governor’s race.
Amy Gardner, a reporter for The Washington Post, revealed that more than 1,200 ballots have been rejected statewide. The primary location where voters have been affected is in Gwinnett County.
“It remains unknown why Gwinnett County, Georgia’s second-largest county, is rejecting the most absentee ballots in the state. But voting rights advocates have told the newspaper that a new law regarding information citizens must provide may have caused the problem,” Justin Wise, a reporter for The Hill, said.
Democratic candidate Abrams and voting rights groups have placed blame on Republican candidate Kemp for the ballot holds.
Some of the reasons that have been cited for ballots being thrown away are signatures that do not match those on file, missing addresses and inaccurate birth years, according to state data.
Kemp’s office has stated that counties decide how to process absentee ballots and that they have opened an investigation to make sure state law is being followed.
As the election drew closer, more ballots were reported to be missing in counties such as Dekalb. Georgia Democratic Party officials have reported that 4,700 applications to vote by mail are missing in DeKalb County.
The Atlanta Voice made a comment that the secretary of state’s office is looking into the claims and are taking these accusations seriously.
Judge Leigh Martin May of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia made a statement regarding the absentee ballots.
“The Court finds that the public interest is best served by allowing qualified absentee voters to vote and have their votes counted,” she said. “This injunction ensures that absentee voters who are unable to vote in person and whose applications or ballots are rejected based on a signature mismatch will still have the opportunity to have their votes counted in the upcoming election.”
In addition, Georgia has some of the country’s most restrictive voter ID laws. According to The Washington Post, there have been changes to the mail-in ballot envelope that were part of a broader law passed in 2017 requiring voters’ registration applications to exactly match their driver’s license and Social Security records.
In the aftermath of all of the claims of voter fraud and election manipulation, Kemp’s office has since opened an investigation into the Democratic Party, claiming that they’ve attempted to hack the election.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Candice Broce, a spokesperson for Kemp’s campaign, 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.”
The Democratic Party has denied all claims of those crimes, saying that they are completely false.
The conclusion for this incident has solidified that it’s vital Georgia voters make sure they are properly registered to vote, and if any issues occur, there must be an appropriate protocol to proceed with.
With the day of the election here, accusations and investigations continue to fly from both sides of the aisle in an effort to get to the truth and discredit the opposing party.
