LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) agrees with other Democrats who think last year's Georgia governor's race was stolen from Democrat Stacey Abrams, saying Saturday it's what the "evidence seems to suggest."
Warren supported Abrams in her unsuccessful gubernatorial bid last year against Republican Brian Kemp. After a campaign event at a metro Atlanta high school, Warren said votes that should have gone for Abrams "didn't get counted."
"I think that's what the evidence seems to suggest," she told the Washington Free Beacon, when asked if she agreed with Democrats who feel the race was stolen. "I came to Georgia for Stacey because I just think the world of her, and I think that the whole notion that she fired up people, she got them to the polls, and somehow those votes didn't get counted, I don't think that's how democracy is supposed to work."
Warren's campaign committee recently donated $10,000 to Abrams' dark money nonprofit "Fair Fight Georgia," which she established in the aftermath of her loss to push for higher voter turnout and electoral reforms. Abrams called her loss an "erosion of our democracy" and, while acknowledging her loss in November, said she didn't truly concede.
Kemp served as secretary of state in Georgia before running for governor, and Abrams and her allies alleged he engaged in systematic voter suppression that cost her the race. However, voter registration and turnout increased during his tenure, and Abrams' claim that Kemp put 53,000 votes on hold to stop them from voting was deceptive, the Free Beacon reported:
Abrams’s claim that Kemp wrongfully put 53,000 voters "on hold" in an effort to prevent them from voting is deceptive.
Georgia—like Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, among others—has an "exact match" law requiring personal information collected on voter registration applications to match data on file with the local department of motor vehicles and the federal Social Security Administration.
The 53,000 individuals in questions were not purged from the rolls. Rather their voter registration status was placed as "pending" meaning more information was required to verify their identity.
In most cases, "pending" status can easily be resolved by an individual either online or by contacting their local board of elections. As noted by both Kemp and the Georgia Republican Party, those with a "pending status" on Election Day are still allowed to vote either by regular ballot, upon providing proof of identification, or by provisional ballot, if identity was unverifiable.
A spokesman for Kemp did not respond to a request for comment.