During an emergency election board meeting Wednesday, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office said it has discovered dozens of voter registration applications submitted by the New Georgia Project have been forged. Last week, Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp issued a subpoena to the voter registration group, which was founded by Democratic House leader Stacey Abrams. As part of the subpoena, the group is supposed to turn over all documents related to voter registration efforts and canvass sheets.
The Secretary of State’s office began investigating the organization after receiving complaints from more than a dozen counties. So far investigators for the office say they’ve confirmed 25 forged voter applications submitted by the group in seven counties. The Chief Investigator for the office Chris Harvey said the secretary of state believes one or more canvassers for the group committed the fraud, mainly by contacting voters over the phone. He also said the office has been unable to determine whether 26 others are fraudulent. In addition to forgery, investigators say there are also instances of false statements, false voter registration and providing fraudulent information on a registration document.
“One of the reasons why this matters is because it can change the status of a voter,” said Harvey.
But Harvey said he has found no evidence so far that the group’s executive director and House minority leader Stacey Abrams intended to commit fraud.
“I think what is clear though is that some elements within the New Georgia Project are doing just that,” said Harvey.
As Harvey spoke, a group of protestors stood in silent protest with white cards over their mouths. The cards had the word vote on them.
Georgia Election Board member David Worley raised concerns about how the investigation has been handled. He says the number of applications that are allegedly fraudulent represent less than one percent of those the group has registered.
“I just don’t think it’s helpful to brand an organization and call into a question it’s worth right before the election in a way that could discourage people from registering to vote,” said Worley.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp defended the investigation and said it’s the duty of his office to look into every instance of voter fraud.
“I think when something does escalate to an individual Georgian who is having their signature forged that’s against the law and that’s a felony in Georgia, and I took an oath of office.”
The election board also voted to extend the date the New Georgia Project has to submit documents requested in the subpoena from Tuesday until September 26.
Prior to the meeting, Georgia House Minority leader Stacey Abrams founded the voter registration group and said she objects to what she believes appears to be a witch hunt and a fishing expedition by Secretary of State Kemp. Abrams said Kemp issued the subpoena after learning the group had registered more than 85,000 many of whom are minorities.
“This is overly burdensome, it’s an abuse of power and it’s harassing.”
Abrams said the prior to the subpoena the group became aware of two dozen applications that were in question. But she says the group does not know exactly what the secretary of state is accusing the New Georgia Project of because he has not communicated directly with the group.
“We have yet to hear anything besides please turn over every document you have.”
And Abrams said the group has done nothing wrong. According to Abrams, voter registration organizations required by law to turn over all voter registration applications, even if there are mistakes.
“If fraud is an attempt to deceive then what we’ve done is the exact opposite. We’ve been open and we’ve been transparent. We’ve been aggressive in our attempt to be open and transparent.”
The group also says more than 51,000 of those it has registered to vote since March have yet to be placed on the state’s voter rolls. The group brought copies of those forms to the Secretary of State Monday in an effort to urge Kemp to speed up their registration. They say the matter is urgent because the election is less than a month away.
Georgia State Conference NAACP President Francys Johnson called the election board meeting a sham and says Kemp is trying to suppress the votes of minorities.
“Throughout his term he has used his office to narrow the privilege of voting, to reduce access to the polls and to put up roadblocks that fetter the ballot.”
Johnson and other civil rights leaders said the investigation has encouraged them to step up their voter registration and voter turnout efforts.
WABE contacted Abrams after the election board meeting but did not receive a response by deadline.
State Senate Minority Whip Vincent Fort attended the Wednesday meeting and accused Secretary of State Kemp of suppressing potential Democratic voters.
“This is about the Republicans retaining power in this state. They know the demographics are against them. The only the way they can win is suppress votes.”
Secretary of State Kemp has denied voter suppression allegations.
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