The lawsuit, brought by Democratic Forward national lawyer Marc Elias of the Democracy Forward group, followed an effort to challenge the extensive list of voters simply because their records seemed to coincide with the US Postal Service’s change of address records. Voters in both counties agreed to remove voters, despite Democrats’ warnings that this postal data is not a reliable or conclusive indicator that a voter has given up their local residence.
After Gardner’s decision, Elias welcomed the decision as a “coup for the suppression of the Republican Party voter”.
“We continue to monitor how other counties in Georgia respond to the suppression scheme,” he added. “Where necessary, we will sue and win.”
The evidence to challenge the 4,000 records in Muscogee County was particularly sparse. The challenge was filed on December 14 by a local voter named Ralph Russell, who claimed to have compared evidence from publicly accessible voter registration databases to prove that those voters had moved from Georgia.
“I believe that each individual named … as a result of registering his name and change of address in a location outside Muscogee County, moved to another state with the intention of making the new state his residence,” Russell told the council. county. “Thus, each individual has lost his or her residence in Muscogee County and, consequently, each individual is ineligible to vote in Muscogee County.”
Muscogee’s council met on December 16 and supported Russell’s 3-1 motion, although he did not attend the meeting and did not provide additional evidence to support his challenge. Voters on Russell’s list, according to the council, would be required to vote by provisional ballot and present additional evidence of residency to vote.
In Ben Hill County, the council voted 2-1 to support a challenge by Tommy Roberts, a member of the City Council in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Roberts also relied on change of address data, and the board supported him, despite evidence that the data could not be verified and would be inadmissible in court.
“Despite this advice from the county attorney, the Ben Hill Council voted to determine that there was a probable cause to sustain the challenges,” noted Gardner.
Gardner’s 11-page decision published Monday night noted that voter removals appeared to violate federal law because they were not properly warned and because they qualified as the type of systematic cleaning of electoral rolls that is not allowed within 90 days of a federal election.
Muscogee’s council filed a motion on Monday arguing that Gardner should withdraw from the case based on his relationship with his sister, Abrams.
The council’s lawyers described Abrams as “a Georgian politician and voting rights activist who was the Democratic candidate in the 2018 Georgia governoral election and has since been involved in several widely publicized efforts to increase voter registration and participation in the 2020 general elections in Georgia. “
The motion requesting Gardner’s refusal noted that an Abrams-affiliated electoral registration group, Fair Fight, filed a lawsuit in another federal court in Georgia last week complaining that a national organization dedicated to combating electoral fraud, True the Vote, is making unjustified challenges to voters in Georgia. Georgia in the lead. until the second round of January 5.
“Abrams’ involvement in the Fair Fight Litigation … is enough to satisfy the standard of mandatory judicial refusal,” wrote the council’s lawyers. “Abrams has a clear interest in the outcome of this process and in other similarly litigated disputes in Georgia, due to his defending votes through projects like Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project.”
Gardner, a nominee for President Barack Obama, noted the request for refusal in his decision granting the restraining order and said he refused to withdraw.
“The Court analyzed the motion and found no basis for the refusal. An order detailing the Court’s reasoning is coming soon, ”wrote the judge.