Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is on the ballot for a second term this year and regardless of the outcome of tonight’s Republican primary between Kemp and former U.S. Senator David Perdue, Kemp is no voting rights hero. While he refused to overturn the 2020 election, his record on voting rights shows a long history of restricting ballot access while in public office. As Secretary of State, he faced several lawsuits from civil rights advocacy groups for purging over 1.4 million voters and placing thousands of Black voters’ applications on-hold just weeks before the 2018 election when he was on the ballot running for governor.
In 2021 he signed Senate Bill 202 into law, a move endorsed by dozens of MAGA Republican legislators who voted to overturn election results in 2020. Kemp’s signature is centralized GOP control over local elections, limiting access to absentee voting and imposing restrictions on drop boxes.
March 2021: Kemp Signed An Election Bill Adopting “Vote-Limiting Tactics.” In March 2021, Governor Kemp signed a law reforming Georgia’s electoral system by limiting ballot drop boxes, imposing voter ID requirements and allowing state takeovers of local elections. The law bars the distribution of food and water to voters waiting in line. Absentee voters are now required to “submit driver’s license numbers or other documentation” at least 11 days prior to election day. The new process also disqualifies “provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct” and shortens runoff elections to “as little as one week of early voting.” [Georgia SB 202, 3/25/21] [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/25/21] [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/26/21]
- Georgia’s ‘Election Integrity’ Law “Disproportionately Hurts Voters Of Color” According to Civil Rights Lawsuit. Three civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the law would “impose unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote, […] and deny Black voters in Georgia an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process,” by targeting absentee voting and creating ‘unjustifiable burdens.’ An NPR report found that a “greater share of Black Georgians than White residents cast their ballots remotely,” partially due to a significant racial disparity in average wait times at the polls. [NPR, 10/17/20] [New Georgia Project v. Raffensperger, 3/24/21]
- Opponents Called Kemp’s Election Law “Jim Crow 2.0.” After voting against the law, State Representative Carolyn Hugley (D—Columbus) stated, “This is a partisan power grab in response to the electoral defeat in the 2020 election cycle. We will not stand idly by and let Jim Crow 2.0 roll back our new Georgia.” Rep. Park Cannon (D-Atlanta) was arrested by state troopers after knocking on Kemp’s office door to try to witness the bill signing, briefly interrupting Governor Kemp’s prepared remarks before she was forcibly removed from the building. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/25/21]
- Georgia-Based Corporate Leaders Condemned The Law As Major League Baseball Retaliated. Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO, reportedly “rushed to publicly condemn the law” alongside Major League Baseball, which elected to move the All-Star match from Atlanta to Denver in a decision lauded by the Players Alliance, Los Angeles Dodgers, and prominent athlete LeBron James [ESPN, 4/2/21] [Washington Post, 4/12/21]
- The Law “Came In Response To False Allegations Of Voter Fraud In The 2020 Election.” Republican lawmakers in Georgia reportedly “expressed sympathy for suspicions about the presidential race,” suggesting the law would “increase trust in election outcomes” following unsubstantiated claims of ‘voter fraud’ during the 2020 presidential race. Kemp later tweeted that his administration “led the fight to implement commonsense [sic] election reforms, including voter ID requirements for in-person and absentee voting,” and criticized civil rights advocates “trying to trample on election integrity laws.”[Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/25/21] [Brian Kemp Personal Twitter, 9/08/21]
October 2018: Kemp put Thousands of Black Georgians’ Voter Applications on Hold Before His Own Election. One week before Georgia’s deadline to register and to vote in the midterm elections, Kemp’s office held 53,000 voter applications—some applicants “never saw any notice” of being on-hold. The Associated Press found “the list of voter registrations on hold with Kemp’s office is nearly 70 percent Black,” despite Black adults forming only 32% of Georgia’s population. Kemp’s office blamed the disparity on the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group founded by Abrams in 2013,” accusing the organization of submitting inadequate forms for a batch of predominantly Black applicants. [Associated Press, 10/9/18]
July 2018: Kemp Purged Thousands Of Otherwise Eligible Voters Leading Up To The Midterm Elections. After a week of touring the state to campaign for Governor, Sec. Kemp oversaw a massive purge of 107,000 voters that “would otherwise have been eligible to vote” in the gubernatorial election. On the campaign trail, Kemp maintained his position that weeding out infrequent voters “safeguard[ed] the election from fraud,” alleging that most of the purged voters “had likely moved away or died.” [APM Reports, 10/29/19] [Atlanta-Journal Constitution, 10/19/2018]
December 2017: Kemp Purged 668,000 Voters From Registration Rolls. In 2017, Kemp canceled more than 668,000 voter registrations. 560,000 people were purged from the rolls “on a single day in late July 2017,” reportedly all “Georgians who had been flagged because they’d skipped one too many elections.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/17/18] [APM Reports, 10/29/19]
February 2016: As Secretary of State, Kemp Was Sued for Violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. In 2016, then-Secretary Kemp was sued by Common Cause and the NAACP for “using non-voting alone to trigger the purge process.” Though the case was dismissed after Kemp was elected Governor, the US Department of Justice submitted a statement of interest that “sides with plaintiffs and argues that the voter-removal program violates federal voting-rights laws.” [Common Cause v. Kemp, 3/17/17]
October 2014: Kemp Refused to Process 51,000 Voter Applications. Kemp refused to register 51,000 new voters signed up by the New Georgia Project before the 2014 midterm elections. “Kemp originally charged that thousands of registrations were fraudulent or forgeries – a common rationale used to justify voting restrictions.” After an audit found that all but 50 voter applications were error-free, Kemp withdrew his fraud allegation but failed to register the applications. [Postmedia Breaking News, 10/31/14].
