Georgia election officials are asking a federal judge to throw out a far-reaching lawsuit over voting problems.
The court filing by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says isolated issues during November's election don't indicate a need for broad federal intervention.
The lawsuit alleged that voter registrations were purged, absentee ballots were canceled, precincts were closed and provisional ballots were withheld.
“The complaint combines a variety of claims in an attempt to cobble together a new theory — that a variety of independent and unrelated actions by mostly local official somehow resulted in a series of constitutional violations that require massive judicial intervention,” according to the Monday night motion to dismiss.
The lawsuit was filed in December by Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams’ allies after her loss to Republican Brian Kemp in last year’s race for governor.
Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said the motion to dismiss the lawsuit shows that the government "continues to pretend they are not culpable of disenfranchisement."
“There is no denying that our state’s recent elections have been marred by voter suppression and election mismanagement,” said Groh-Wargo, who was Abrams’ campaign manager. “Our lawsuit will lay out compelling and irrefutable evidence of an interlocking system of voter suppression.”
But attorneys for Raffensperger wrote that any changes to election laws should be made by the Georgia General Assembly, not by the courts.
“Put simply, plaintiffs seek to enact their preferred policies not through state government or the Legislature, but through the federal judiciary,” according to the motion to dismiss the case.
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