State Watch

Obama ethics chief slams Kemp: He shouldn’t be treated as ‘normal’ governor

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Norm Eisen, a former ethics chief under President Obama, on Sunday said he does not believe Georgia Gov.-elect Brian Kemp should be treated as a “normal head of the state” after a tight race marred by voting issues and accusations of voter suppression. 

“I was a U.S. ambassador,” Eisen, former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, tweeted on Sunday, linking to an article about those who were allegedly prevented from voting during the Georgia elections. “If my host country had attacked democracy in this way, I would have publicly slammed them & called for economic sanctions.” 

“I certainly would not have treated the ‘winning’ candidate is a normal head of the state, & we should not do so here,” Eisen added.

Throughout Kemp’s campaign, his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams accused him of aggressive voter suppression, particularly against minorities. Kemp was the secretary of state overseeing Georgia’s elections during the election.

Abrams ramped up the allegations in light of a news report that found 53,000 voter registration applications are on hold because they failed to meet the state’s “exact match” law. Of the 53,000 applications on hold, 70 percent of were reportedly from black voters.

The article Eisen linked to points out other voting issues on Election Day, including lines to vote that took up to 4.5 hours and 214 polling places that were shuttered for various reasons.

Abrams vowed to continue to fight against voter disenfranchisement in Georgia when she ended her campaign on Friday

“I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial elections,” Abrams said during her speech. “But to watch an elected official — who claims to represent the people of this state, baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote — has been truly appalling.” 

The Georgia Democrat during an interview on Sunday said that she plans to deal with the issue in the “court of law.” 

Tags Brian Kemp Georgia Georgia governor's race Voter suppression

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