Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who they say is holding 53,000 new voter registration applications on his desk.
Kemp’s office oversees all elections in the state of Georgia. Kemp faces opponent Stacey Abrams in the race for governor of Georgia.
Kemp denies the allegations that his office is illegally holding voter applications.
Kemp’s office verifies new voter applications by using an “exact match” protocol. The protocol causes a no match result if a single letter or number is transposed, deleted, or there is an accidental entry of an extra character on the form.
The lawsuit alleges that the “exact match” protocol suppresses minority votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the 14th Amendment and the 1993 Voter Registration Act.
An Associated Press investigation revealed earlier this week that Kemp’s office has 53,000 new voter applicants on his desk — 70 percent of the applicants are Black people.
Many of the applicants may not know that their applications are on hold.
Voters whose applications are on hold have 26 months to correct their mistakes before the application is canceled, according to NBC News.
Kemp blamed his opponent, Stacey Abrams, for being “sloppy” while registering voters through her New Georgia Project, a voter registration group she founded in 2013.
“This is a publicity stunt that the media falls for year after year. Their claims are bogus, said Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for Kemp’s office.
She said the 53,000 applicants can vote in the November 6 election.
“Any claims to the contrary are politically motivated and utterly false,” she added.
In a tweet later Thursday, Abrams said her campaign will set up a voter protection hotline and will also send watchers to the polls to make sure voters can cast ballots on Nov. 8.
“Let me be clear: We will work to process the 53,000 voter registrations, but we will not wait for justice,” Abrams said.
