Chamblee54

The New Georgia Project was Stacey Abrams’s baby. She was going to register POC voters, and turn Georgia blue. It did not quite work out that way. “Of course, Abrams might be forgiven had the New Georgia Project met its goal of registering substantial numbers of new voters. Instead, there were fewer new voters registered in 2014 than there were in 2010, when there was no comparable registration drive. … there are rumblings that Abrams’ skills as an executive are lacking, as evidenced by her mismanagement of both the NGP project and the Democratic election effort.”
Some were suprised when Miss Abrams took up the voting rights fight. “Four years ago” (in 2011), “she voted with Republicans to reduce early voting from 45 days to 21 days, effectively breaking away from staunch voting rights supporters on the issue.” There were indications that “Abrams focused on fundraising and wasn’t typically involved with NGP’s daily operations.” “In an interview, Kemp said that investigators are working to track down canvassers and voters who appeared multiple times in the project’s applications. He attributed any issues with getting the project’s voters on the rolls to the “sloppiness” of canvassers and not a dark political motive.”
Miss Abrams was an effective fund raiser, and millions pored in. Not everyone thinks it was well spent. “State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, … says Abrams, as the initiative’s founder, ought to disclose NGP’s registration numbers and outline its operations. “We need to know how much money was spent, where the money came from, and what companies and individuals received the resources.” Sen Fort told Atlanta Magazine “She hasn’t been open and transparent. … Her funders don’t know where her money went. More importantly, the public doesn’t know where the money went.” “William Perry, founder of Georgia Ethics Watchdog, believes the lawmaker should make her financial records … public …It’s a glaring example of what makes people sick about politics.”
“In 2014, The Secretary of State office investigated The New Georgia Project. “The investigation started with a single complaint. A Butts County election official reported that some canvassers were illegally telling voters they were required to re-register for the election. The complaint was filed on May 5, six months before Election Day, and prompted Kemp’s office to launch a small-scale probe into NGP the following week.”
“The secretary of state’s office didn’t receive another formal complaint about NGP for months. But other problems, though officially unreported, continued elsewhere. Before the May primary, longtime Muscogee County Elections and Registration director Nancy Boren says two of her employees were asked at a Columbus, Ga. grocery store if they wanted to become paid canvassers for $11 per hour. The NGP workers were unaware they had approached election office staffers, Boren says. Her employees asked for more details about the gig.”
“Boren says, “[NGP employees] said, ‘You can make $11 per hour, but you have to turn in a certain number of voter registration forms each week. If you don’t turn in that number, you don’t get asked back. If you’re asked back the next week, and you meet your number again — I hate to use the word quota — maybe you’ll get a ride to work, too.'”
“Brad Jones, a Savannah State University student who worked as an NGP canvasser, expressed concerns to local TV reporters about the legitimacy of the initiative’s practices in late May. He said the operation had poorly trained canvassers, improperly collected people’s personal data, and instructed registrants to vote at a nonexistent polling precinct. The allegations prompted the NAACP’s Johnson to hold a press conference, where he reiterated the group’s protocols, effectively distancing his organization from NGP’s work.”
“On Tues., Sept. 9, Kemp slapped both NGP and TSD (Third Sector Development, an Abrams led non-profit) with a subpoena demanding that all of their documents be turned over in one week’s time. He also informed elections officials in Georgia’s 159 counties about the “significant illegal activities” found in the initial investigation — a message that initially raised eyebrows among his critics. Five more county election officials responded with new voter fraud complaints by the end of the next day.”
“As NGP wound down its voter registration efforts that same week, Abrams launched a public relations battle against the secretary of state’s office. … With supporters in tow at the Sept. 17 press conference, Abrams fought back. The state rep questioned Kemp’s motives for launching the probe. She also criticized his office’s “slow internal processes and a potentially flawed matching system.” During her remarks, she pointed to 13 stacked plastic boxes with white, pink, and turquoise lids, filled with more than 51,000 pieces of paper. Each one, she explained, represented a Georgia resident who wanted to vote, but potentially couldn’t because his or her application had gone unprocessed.”… “CL has made repeated requests to view the thousands of unprocessed applications to confirm their existence. NGP denied each request, citing rules from Georgia’s election code, specifically Section 183-1-6.02, protecting voter registrants’ personal information.”
“With no resolution in sight, the Lawyers’ Committee filed a lawsuit on behalf of New Georgia Project and the NAACP. The suit demanded that Kemp and Chatham, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, and Muscogee counties, all of which are strong Democratic bases where NGP says it collected the most applications, immediately add tens of thousands of voters onto the state’s rolls by any means necessary. … Throughout October Abrams made speeches, conducted interviews, and appeared on national television to discuss how unprocessed applications had fallen into a “black hole … The Lawyers’ Committee filed an open records request, and eight activists went to jail following a sit-in inside Kemp’s office. … NGP’s legal effort stalled during a two-hour hearing on Oct. 28. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Christopher Brasher … tossed out the petition because it was “entirely devoid” of evidence against the secretary of state or local county registrars.”
Brian Kemp does not look good here. “The voter suppression accusations are believable. Kemp has a track record of allegedly blocking access to the polls. … Kemp has also refused to comply with the National Voter Registration Act in the past. State agencies, which by law are required to offer residents who receive public benefits the opportunity to register to vote, weren’t doing so for years. The secretary of state’s office agreed to enforce that mandate only after the NAACP and the Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda filed a lawsuit in 2011. … “We were criticized for being on a witch hunt, but we handled this case just like we do with any other complaint,” Kemp says. “People were calling me a racist and a vote suppressor — that bothered me a lot. That’s not the case. It’s very hypocritical for people to say that.”
There were numerous critics of Stacey Abrams in 2015. “NGP’s well-funded, high-profile initiative may not have performed better than past grassroots efforts to register minority voters. According to Democratic database VoteBuilder, 2014 showed little to no progress among potential minority voter registration compared to average annual gains in recent nonpresidential elections.”
“One Democratic strategist and former Abrams staffer says, “[New Georgia Project] under performed what was done in 2010. Absolutely nothing was done in 2010. It’s hard to grasp how unsuccessful her effort was, given the amount of money raised.”
“Another concern was about the Abrams lawsuit, in response to the investigation. “Multiple sources say that Abrams, in filing a lawsuit that potentially distracts from her voter registration numbers, could jeopardize voting rights advances. If the missing applications don’t exist, one state lawmaker says, Abrams will have undermined the very people her initiative sought to uplift. “This is something that I’ve been worried will break, because it completely substantiates the false, hyperbolic idea of rampant voter fraud that’s used, in my opinion to chill and suppress voter turnout.”
Stacey Abrams recently not-conceded the Governor’s race. Her high octane charges of voter suppression were accepted, without question, by the national media. Stacey Abrams is a charismatic figure, with a talent for grandstanding. As another snake oil salesman put it, “Stacey Abrams fought brilliantly and hard – she will have a terrific political future!” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. A fine article in Creative Loafing, The New Georgia Problem, was used in this feature. Readers are encouraged to read the original for themselves.