A self-described non-partisan advocacy group announced plans Tuesday to file an 11th-hour lawsuit to stop Georgia Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp from overseeing vote-counting in his own election.
Protect Democracy – a non-profit founded in part by former Obama administration staffers – is representing five Georgia voters in the planned lawsuit who claim that Kemp’s oversight of his own election violates their Constitutional right “to cast an effective vote.”
“This violates a basic notion of fairness – that a man should not be a judge in his own matter – and it has had predictable results,” a copy of the complaint reads.
The complaint, to be filed in the Northern District of Georgia, alleges a series of instances of “extreme bias” against Kemp’s opponent – Stacey Abrams.
Specifically, the lawsuit cites an investigation that Kemp’s office launched into alleged hacking by the Abrams campaign as evidence of bias.
“Defendant Kemp used the resources of his office and the official Secretary of State website to make these accusations to deflect blame for his own failures to address flaws in the election system and to falsely harm his opponents,” the lawsuit reads.
Kemp opened the investigation after Georgia Democrats pointed out a potential security flaw in the state’s election system.
Candice Broce, a Kemp spokeswoman, told TPM in a written statement that, “this twelfth-hour stunt will not distract us from fulfilling our responsibilities and working with county officials to ensure a secure, accessible, and fair election for all eligible Georgians.”
Good.
Everyone can see how bad this makes him look.
This same guy that is running in this very election, that accused Dems of hacking into the voter system will now oversee the vote count. Somebody wake me up when all these people have been launched into space.
They should have filed this a while ago on general principle, especially once it became apparent that Kemp was going to use his office to help himself win. It should actually be a law that the person who oversees an election should be non-partisan, and definitely not any part of an active campaign they oversee, whether as a candidate, campaign staff, or even donor. It’s only fair to run things that way, it should be obvious how easy using that position to cheat is…no wonder Republicans keep doing it.
Discovery is going to be a real bitch for Mr. Kemp.
You would think he would want an independent oversight. Does he realize how bad it looks for him to be overseeing the vote count for his own election?