A temporary restraining order issued Monday by Georgia’s federal judge Leslie Abrams Gardner against a Republican attempt to remove some voters from the rolls ahead of the January special Senate election has sparked controversy. Judge Gardner is the sister of Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who founded the voting group Fair Fight.
The electoral process in Georgia has been thoroughly scrutinized at national and local level. President Donald Trump claimed to have won the state presidential election, despite multiple versions of the ballots, all of which showed that Biden was the winner. In January, Georgia is expected to hold a special election for two Senate seats. The outcome of the election will determine which party gains control of the Senate. While Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud have so far been unfounded, there have been a few minor instances of irregularities reported in Georgia.
In December, Muscogee Republican Party chairman Ralph Russell challenged the residential qualifications of 4,033 voters. Russell claims in his documentation that the individuals “moved to a location outside of Muscogee County, to another state for the purpose of making the new state their place of residence.” Russell claims that voters were not eligible for the January election.
The Democratic challenge to Russell’s submission comes from Majority Forward, a voting group that claims Russell used incorrect address change of the U.S. Postal Service to confirm his allegations. Judge Gardner sided with the Democratic group and allowed voters named in Russell’s lawsuit to vote in the January election.
“While the court recognizes that an order may impede defendants in their role in running the current election,” Gardner ruled, “the damage to voters whose right to vote is unlawfully impeded or denied is much greater.”
In a statement issued Monday, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger called Gardner’s decision a “direct attack on the rule of law in Georgia and the integrity of the election in that state.” Raffensperger claims that Gardner ignored aspects of Georgia’s election laws that could have worked in the Republican ruling.
According to Roll Call, Majority Forward is the nonprofit arm of the Democratic-affiliated Senate Majority PAC. Fair Fight, the organization founded by Abrams, donated $ 2.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC. Raffensperger drew a connection between Abram’s financial activities and Gardner’s ruling.
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“That a judge will rule on a case funded by a group funded by her sister is very worrying,” Raffensperger added.
Because of her association with Abrams, Gardner was asked to withdraw from the case by Republicans in Muscogee County and Ben Hill County, who were also affected by Gardner’s ruling. According to the recall request, Abrams’ involvement in several lawsuits “gave her a clear interest in the outcome of this process”, enabling outside observers to “create significant doubts about Judge Gardner’s bias under the circumstances.
Newsweek reach out to Fair Fight for comment.
Gardner did not want to withdraw from the case, despite the opportunity to do so. “The court has reviewed the motion and finds no basis for withdrawal,” Gardner wrote. “There is an order on the reasoning of the court.”
Despite being a member of the same political party, he criticized Raffensperger over how Georgia is conducting its election. In December, Trump tweeted that if Republican incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue lost the election, Raffensperger would be among the “sole culprits.” Trump also referred to Raffensperger, Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia, and Geoff Duncan, lieutenant governor, as ‘RINOS’ [Republicans In Name Only]. “
Trump also targeted the election officials in Georgia after losing the state to Biden. In a manual of the ballot papers in November, more than 3000 ballot papers were discovered that were not discussed in the original table. However, not enough ballot papers were discovered to change the election results.
Trump appeared during a campaign rally in December in support of Loeffler and Perdue, warning that the Senate election could be the subject of manipulation. “They cheated and they fixed our presidential election, but we will still win it,” Trump told the crowd. “And they are also going to try to direct this election.”