Yesterday, Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams finally gave up her bid to become Georgia’s first African-American governor, unable to legally overcome the obstacle of systematic and racially driven voter disenfranchisement and suppression perpetrated by her opponent, Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
The election was flagrantly stolen by Kemp, and even members of his own party are angry enough to call him out and denounce him as illegitimate.
GOP strategist and political consultant John Weaver, who worked on the John McCain and John Kasich presidential campaigns, took to Twitter to slam Kemp for his violation of our democracy and to sound the call for a restoration of the Voting Rights Act.
This hack @BrianKempGA is the next "governor*" of Georgia. But he cheated & undermined democracy every step of the way. @staceyabrams should be governor, but isn't due to actions that can't be tolerated. She has a bright future. We need a new, enforceable Voting Rights Act. Now!
— John Weaver (@jwgop) November 17, 2018
Kemp, who is in charge of the office that conducts elections, did everything in his power to keep people from being able to vote. Over the past six years, he’s purged nearly two and a half million people off of the voter rolls, suspended the applications of 53,000 more would-be voters, and rejected nearly 600 absentee ballots.
Over 25,000 people reported having trouble voting on election day, while tens of thousands more were forced to wait in long lines to vote at underequipped polling stations while hundreds of brand-new voting machines sat unused in a warehouse.
Until we follow Weaver’s advice and restore the Voting Rights Act to make sure that all voters are able to fulfill their civic duties, Republicans are going to continue to steal elections and continue to impose their extremist minority agenda on an unwilling nation.
