Brian Kemp, the Georgia Secretary of State who has been under fire during the midterms for repeated voter suppression efforts, faced difficulties of his own when attempting to cast his ballot on Tuesday.
Even Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican candidate for governor and the state’s chief elections official, had trouble voting, amid reports of technical malfunctions and long lines at polling stations. https://t.co/vnqQMpHOBF #Election2018
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 7, 2018
Kemp is running for governor on the GOP ticket and went to cast his ballot in Winterville, Georgia, today. Kemp had an invalid voter card his first time around, but the issue was quickly resolved and he was eventually able to vote.
It’s a bit of karmic blowback, given that Kemp’s office held up the voter registrations of an estimated 53,000 Georgians, 70 percent of whom are African-American, under the state’s “exact match” laws, which state that a voter’s name on their application must exactly match their identification.
Kemp also accused Georgia’s Democratic party of trying to hack the state’s elections after a citizen alerted both campaigns of vulnerabilities in the system. There was no evidence for Kemp’s claims.
The Georgia governor’s race has been one of the most watched in the country, due to Kemp’s voter suppression efforts and the historic nature of his opponent, Stacey Abrams. If she defeats Kemp, Abrams will be the first African-American female governor in U.S. history.
H/T Associated Press
