The case, brought by National Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias’s group Democracy Forward, follows an attempt to challenge the long list of voters simply because their registrations appear to match the U.S. Postal Service’s address change record. . Voters in the two provinces agreed to remove the voters, despite warnings from Democrats that such postal data is not a reliable or conclusive indication that a voter has given up their local home.
Following the statement of Gardner, Elias praised the decision as a “blow to the oppression of IDP voters.”
“We continue to monitor how other Georgia counties respond to the repression scheme,” he added. “Where necessary, we will sue and we will win.”
The evidence to contest the 4,000 registrations in Muscogee County was particularly sparse. The challenge was filed on Dec. 14 by a local voter named Ralph Russell, who claimed to have compared evidence from the publicly available voter registration database to prove that these voters had moved out of Georgia.
“I believe that each of the said individuals … as a result of the registration of their name and change of address to a place outside Muscogee County, moved to another state for the purpose of making the new state their residence,” has Russell to the county council. “Every individual has therefore lost his or her place of residence in Muscogee County and as a result every individual is unable to vote in Muscogee County.”
The Muscogee board met on December 16 and supported Russell’s motion 3-1, although he did not attend the meeting and provided no additional evidence to support his challenge. Voters on Russell’s list, according to the council, must vote by provisional vote and provide additional proof of residency to vote.
In Ben Hill County, the council voted 2-1 to support a challenge filed by Tommy Roberts, a member of the city council in Fitzgerald, GA. Roberts also relied on change of address information, and the council supported him despite evidence that the information could not be verified and would be inadmissible in court.
“Despite this advice from the provincial attorney, the Ben Hill council voted to find that there was a possible reason to face the challenges,” Gardner noted.
Gardner’s 11-page verdict was announced Monday night noted that the removal of voters appears to be in violation of federal law because they have not been properly notified and because they qualify as the type of systematic cleaning of the electoral roll that is not allowed within 90 days of a federal election.
The Muscogee board filed a motion earlier Monday arguing that Gardner should remove herself from the case based on her relationship with her sister, Abrams.
Advocates for the council described Abrams as ” a politician and suffrage activist in Georgia who was the Democratic candidate in the 2018 government election in Georgia and has since made various attempts to register and elect voters for the general election in 2020 in Georgia. ”
The motion calling for Gardner’s recall noted that a voter registration group affiliated with Abrams, Fair Fight, filed a lawsuit in another federal court in Georgia last week, complaining that a national organization that focuses on voter fraud, True the Vote, facing unjustified challenges posed to Georgia voters – through Jan. 5.
“Abrams’ involvement in the Fair Fight Litigation … is sufficient to meet the standard for mandatory judicial refusal,” the council’s lawyers wrote. “Abrams has a clear interest in the outcome of this process and other similar lawsuits in Georgia because of her advocacy through projects such as Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project.”
Gardner, a nominee for President Barack Obama, noted that the request for withdrawal was granted in her ruling on the restraining order, saying she refused to step aside.
“The court reviewed the motion and finds no grounds for revocation. An order setting out the Court’s reasoning is coming, ‘the judge wrote.