Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced his office is investigating a voter advocacy group founded by failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for “repeatedly and aggressive” seeking to register “ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters,” including his deceased son.
The New Georgia Project, as well as two other organizations—America Votes and Vote Forward—are being investigated for encouraging illegal voting actions, Raffensperger announced.
The groups were “issued clear warnings several times,” but Georgia election officials have nonetheless “received specific evidence that these groups have solicited voter registrations from ineligible individuals who have passed away or live out of state.”
Some of this evidence landed on Raffensperger’s own doorstep. He said that his family received mailers from Abrams’s group addressed to his deceased son, urging him to vote in the 2020 election.
“Here’s something that came to my house yesterday, we got three of them, all from the same organization and it’s to my son Brenton J. Raffensperger who passed away two years ago,” he said holding up the mailers.
“We’ve had additional information coming in regarding the tactics from these groups including the New Georgia Project sending five voter registrations to the same dead person, and sending applications to ineligible voters,” he added.
His office has received hundreds of complaints about the New Georgia Project in recent weeks because of these issues, Raffensperger said.
In one instance, a New York City resident received a “package of postcards” from the group. And in another example, Emory University students were encouraged to illegally register to vote in the runoffs.
“Your current residence can be another state. You are simply changing your state of residence now; and it can be switched back for future elections (your option),” said a flier sent by the group to students.
Raffensperger vowed to investigate each of these complaints.
“I will investigate these claims thoroughly and take action against anyone attempting to undermine our elections,” he said.
