“Register Minority Voters in Georgia, Go to Jail”

Spencer Woodman reports for TNR.  It includes this:

Last month, Brian Kemp told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that his elections director, Linda Ford, was resigning at his request because of a “technical error” that caused nearly 8,000 voters to be improperly removed from the rolls. “It was an honest mistake by a hard-working person and, unfortunately, she has to pay the price,” Kemp said.

In response to questions about Ford’s resignation, Kemp’s office provided me with a 60-page report detailing the findings an internal investigation into the incident. It found the cancellation of the thousands of voters “could be a potential violation” of the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law meant to help ensure equal access to the ballot box. The law requires that a state cannot move voters off the rolls within 90 days of an election. Kemp’s office had struck thousands of voters, mostly in Georgia’s Richmond County, from the rolls six days past this key federal deadline.

Kemp has called the issue “very serious.” But in public statements, he elided the fact that his own office may have violated federal law. Instead, he has emphasized that the action was a mistake. The report his office released to me states that the matter was discovered only after Project Vote, a non-profit group that seeks to increase voter participation among low-income and minority voters, requested a related records.

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