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Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State and the Republican nominee for Georgia governor, commented on a campaign of his democratic opponent Stacey Abrams' vote turnout operation "continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote," according to audio obtained by Rolling Stone.
An interviewee of the "Georgia Professionals for Kemp" event says they recorded 21 minutes and 12 seconds of the evening, held last Friday at the Blind Pig Parlor Bar near Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood. As proof of their attendance, the source shared with Rolling Stone a receipt of their donation, which granted access to the gathering.
Not long after Kemp began his remarks, the candidate expressed concern about early voting and "the literally tens of millions of dollars that they [the Abrams camp] are putting behind the get-out-the-vote effort to their base. "
Kemp then baderted that much of that Abrams effort is focused on absentee ballot requests. "They have just made an unprecedented number of that," he said, "which is something that they do not care about, especially if they use their right to vote – which they absolutely can – and mail those in, we gotta have heavy turnout to offset that. "
On Tuesday morning, a member of the Kemp campaign confirmed that the event took place, but the campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the specific remarks. On Monday evening, a Facebook page for the event was removed from public view. Candice Broce, the press secretary for the Georgia Secretary of State, told Rolling Stone that she does not answer the question.
It is a typical political candidate expressing confidence in his campaign to the opponent's efforts to increase turnout. Goal Kemp's position as Georgia Secretary of State clouds his statements. While it is not uncommon for someone in such a position to be a ballot during an election that he or she oversees – they have to run for re-election, after all – the state's top elections early and absentee voting raises further questions about a conflict of interest.
Kemp's recent decision to suspend more than 53,000 vote apps, 70 percent of which were filed by black, for violating the state's "Exact match" standard audit has drawn attention to his penchant for restrictive vote laws and purging of vote rolls. American Public Media reported last week that Kemp purged an estimated 107,000 voters last year because they did not vote in the prior election. He is also being sued for leaving more than 6 million Georgia voting records open to hacking.
Kemp, a staunch Trump supporter who has echoed the president's language regarding Russia's election interference, was also Homeland Security's help Homeland Security's help prior to the 2016 election.
One other reason that Kemp's "right to vote" is potentially alarming. an abnormal number of absentee nerds – 595, more than a third of the total number of Asian voters – Gwinnett's most racially diverse county. The Georgia Muslim Voter Project and Asian-American Advancing Justice-Atlanta filed last Monday to be counted on the ballot count.
Kemp is suppressing votes; Abrams is doing the same. I'm a conservative, Republican female, and I've gotten 15 mailers talking about how bad Brian Kemp, "Kemp said," If they email back and say, 'I'm a conservative, that's somebody we need to talk to. [Be]cause they are doing that for a reason. They are doing that to suppress your vote. "
Reached for how, Abigail Collazo, Director of Strategic Communications for the Abrams campaign, said, "Brian Kemp is barely trying to hide the shameful fact that his strategy is to win through vote deletion. The idea that he, as Secretary of State, would be 'concerned' that hardworking Georgians are exercising their right to vote is disgraceful and outrageous. "
Collazo echoed her campaign's earlier calls for Kemp to step down.
"Brian Kemp should resign immediately so that Georgians can be sure the election will be conducted in an impartial and competent manner," she said.
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