Politics

Democrats in Congress rally behind Georgia vote fight

As a pair of federal judges issued rulings to force the counting of provisional and absentee ballots in the race for Governor in Georgia, Democrats in the Congress demanded a full count in the state, accusing Republican Brian Kemp of being worried about tallying all the votes in his race against Democrat Stacey Abrams.

“In Georgia, every vote should be counted,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). “And that is how our candidate can have a fair shot.”

Appearing at a Capitol Hill event of the National Action Network, a civil rights group run by Rev. Al Sharpton, Klobuchar teed off on Kemp, accusing him of holding up voter registration of thousands of Georgia residents, and doing all he could to trip up Democratic voters.

“When every vote is counted, then it’s right,” said Klobuchar, who has been mentioned frequently as a candidate for President in 2020.

The latest numbers in the race for Governor continued to keep Kemp just above the 50 percent majority that he needs to avoid a runoff, as Democrats held out hope that uncounted ballots could close the gap for Abrams.

“What we’ve seen in Florida, and especially in Georgia, has been a national disgrace,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), joining Klobuchar in accusing Republicans of doing all they could to suppress the votes of Democrats.

“Every vote matters, period,” said Warren, who is also talked about as a Presidential hopeful.

“Politicians are supposed to compete over how many voters they can persuade to vote for them,” Warren added. “Not how many American citizens they can disqualify, discourage or demoralize.”

Meanwhile, Georgia’s vote fight in the race for Governor was increasingly being fought out in the courts, as a federal judge on Monday ruled that Gwinnett County must count absentee ballots which had been thrown out on technical grounds.

“I’ve been concerned about the unusually high number of absentee ballots rejected by Gwinnett County for failure of voters to provide their year of birth,” said elections expert Michael McDonald. “A court has ordered Gwinnett to count these ballots.”