Stacey Abrams shot down by Obama-appointed judge

FPI / October 4, 2022

Democrat Stacey Abrams rode the "election integrity is racist" gravy train to a $3 million personal net worth and $50 million for her gubernatorial campaign, much of it from outside Georgia.

On Friday, a judge — who was appointed by President Barack Obama no less — shot down Abrams's argument that the Peach State is the epicenter of minority voter suppression.

U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones ruled that Georgia's election integrity practices requiring voter ID and citizenship checks are constitutional and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

In a ruling issued just weeks before the November midterms, where Abrams is challenging GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the judge roundly rejected the arguments of Abrams and her Fair Fight Inc. voter advocacy group.

"Although Georgia's election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the Constitution nor the VRA," Jones ruled in a 288-page decision. "As the Eleventh Circuit notes, federal courts are not 'the arbiter[s] of disputes' which arise in elections; it [is] not the federal court's role to 'oversee the administrative details of a local election.' "

Even after losing the decision on every count, Abrams doubled down on her claims, tweeting: "There's no denying voter suppression under Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger."

Kemp and Raffensperger hailed the decision while mocking Abrams for her prior claims of racial suppression and a stolen election in 2018, when she refused to concede she lost to Kemp.

"Judge Jones' ruling exposes this legal effort for what it really is: a tool wielded by a politician hoping to wrongfully weaponize the legal system to further her own political goals," Kemp said.

"This is a win for all Georgia election officials who dedicate their lives to safe, secure and accessible elections," Raffensperger declared. "Stolen election and voter suppression claims by Stacey Abrams were nothing but poll-tested rhetoric not supported by facts and evidence."

In his ruling, Judge Jones cited the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year that upheld Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and his state's law outlawing ballot harvesting or trafficking.

"With respect to citizenship matching, the Court finds that after weighing the Brnovich guideposts, citizenship matching also does not violate Section 2 of the VRA. ... The Court finds that Georgia's system of voting is equally open," Jones wrote.

On the MIDR (missing identification required match legal requirement for voter ID), the judge said he had concluded that the "disparate impact" of photo ID on voters was "de minimis," or legally insignificant, noting that "97.97% of Black voters were not impacted. The Court finds that the impact of MIDR is like the impact of the Arizona law and does not render the election system unequally open."

Free Press International
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