Just one week away from the start of early voting, at least 42,000 residents who registered to vote still haven’t been given that right. Some applied as far back as April. “The Secretary of State is supposed to represent all the people — Democrats, Republicans, Independents, registered and unregistered voters alike,” Congressman John Lewis said Monday, during a press conference hosted by the New Georgia Project in Atlanta. “But it seems like the Secretary of State of Georgia has picked sides in this election. It seems he is not on the side of the people of this state.” Stacey Abrams, the Democratic party leader in the state House of Representatives, leads the New Georgia Project, an initiative that aims to register minority groups to vote. The initiative was successful in registering 86,000 new voters — but Abrams said the group can’t understand why half those new voters haven’t shown up on Georgia’s official list of registered voters, yet.
Abrams and Lewis joined Congressman Sanford Bishop, the NAACP, religious leaders and others in demanding an answer to the problem from Secretary of State Brian Kemp — the man who is ultimately in charge of voting in Georgia.
“The New Georgia Project submitted 86,000 voting applications in April,” Lewis said. “Why is it, Mr. Secretary, that less than half of these voters have made it onto the voting roll almost six months later? These people were barred from voting in the primary in May and we’re here today because we believe they may be barred from voting next month in the General Election.”
Full Article: Georgia leaders worry over 42,000 missing voters | Henry Daily Herald.