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In a republican county of a republican state, Coral Stavros is waiting for Stacey Abrams.
"Stacey Abrams represents the future of Georgia as I wish," said the 55-year-old athlete.
Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
In reconciling himself, the regional manager of "a food brand that you've probably never heard of," said Georgia – despite its conservative tendencies – is ready for a democrat like Abrams, a candidate as governor.
"I absolutely think that Georgia is ready for a progressive democrat, I mean that it is the cradle of civil rights (…) We are the capital of the south and we are the leaders of the new thinking in the world. south, "said Stavros. "And that's the moment."
Watch the whole story of "Nightline" tonight at 12:35 pm
The candidates
The governorship race in Georgia is one of the most watched races in the country. On one side, there is Abrams, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives of Georgia. His candidacy is largely the reason why this race has attracted so much national attention. If she were to win, she would be the first female African American governor in US history.
There is also Brian Kemp, supported by Trump. He is currently Secretary of State for Georgia, the office responsible for the conduct of elections in Georgia.
Curtis Compton / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
And it is there that lies the other reason of all advertising; in recent weeks, his office has been overwhelmed with allegations of widespread suppression of voters. Many organizations, including the ACLU and the NAACP, have accused the Kemp office of using tactics that deprive minorities of their voting rights.
He vehemently denied any irregularities, insisting that his office only enforces the laws in force for the more general purpose of preventing electoral fraud.
While ABC News was touring Georgia, we spoke to both candidates about their plans and the controversies surrounding this race.
Kemp, 55, has made a name as a conservative at home who does not care what everyone thinks.
One of his controversial commercials in the primary shows Kemp holding a shotgun and then a chainsaw, proudly declaring: "I own guns and no one takes them", and "I have a big truck right next to it In this case, I need to gather illegal criminals and bring them home myself. "
"Yes, I just said that.I am Brian Kemp.If you want a politically incorrect conservative, it's me."
This message resonates with many in his home country. At a rally for the Kemp Camp campaign in Jesup, Ted Badami, a retired federal law enforcement officer, was on site with his daughter Gianna.
Deborah Roberts, of ABC News, asked him what he thought of Kemp's message.
"It goes in the direction of conservative values," Badami said. "I'm from Michigan, I was born in Ohio and grew up in Michigan, I think conservative communities have a lot in common." he said. "Immigration is important, values. I like the fact that he talks about paying more teachers and supporting the forces of order."
Statistically, both are in almost dead heat – a surprising phenomenon for a reliable conservative state. The last time Georgia elected a Democrat was more than 20 years ago.
ABC News has requested an official interview with Kemp, but his campaign has been denied. Roberts was nonetheless able to ask the race secretary questions after a stop in the Ludowici campaign.
"The Democratic base has had a lot of dynamism throughout the country from its base," Kemp said. "I think the reason it was so tight at first was because the Republican base was not really motivated, it changed a few weeks ago."
President Trump approved Kemp early in the race and recently tweeted on his behalf.
Brian Kemp will be a GREAT governor of Georgia. Stacey Abrams will destroy the state. Sooooo important, get out and VOTE for Brian!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2018
Trump will also campaign for Kemp Sunday, two days before the elections.
Meanwhile, Abrams has garnered support from big names in Hollywood: John Legend has organized fundraisers; Will Ferrell knocked on Georgia's doorstep for her and the musician Common campaigned for her. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker also campaigned for her, and former President Barack Obama will join her at a campaign rally on Friday.
Kemp took advantage of this to his advantage – attacking Abrams to receive 65% of his donations from the state. Kemp views his views and values as far removed from "true Georgians".
Abrams, in an interview with Roberts aboard his country bus, said it did not bother him to be described as a nationally renowned campaign character.
"We received funds from all over the state, but [in terms of] individual donors, we have more than five times the number of individual donors [as Kemp] from the state of Georgia giving us, "she said.
"I believe we need to run a locally known nationwide campaign because Georgia wants to be a leading state."
Kemp's underscored his claims that Abrams is an extremist whose sound is recorded on a tape and in which it is rumored that the blue wave sweeping the country "includes those that are documented and undocumented".
Kemp said that Abrams wanted to see "the illegals vote".
"Of course not," Abrams told Roberts. "I know that the only people allowed to vote are eligible citizens."
Abrams, 44, who writes detective novels in his spare time, leads a resolutely progressive campaign. She is an ally for the equality of LGBTQ people, a supporter of stricter gun control and believes in Medicaid's expansion.
Roberts asked Abrams if she thought she could break the string of Republican victories in Georgia.
"Absolutely, because Georgia has changed in the last 20 years, demographically we are a much more diverse state, but also the problems I'm talking about resonate from one ideology to the other." replied Abrams.
But the heart of this battle for the future of Georgia lies in a bitter speech about Georgia's past. The state – and especially the Kemp office – has been criticized for what critics call a blatant attempt to intimidate color voters by Republicans.
Atlanta-based lawyer Emmet J. Bondurant said he has been watching these events for decades.
"Georgia is no different from the rest of the nation," Bondurant said. "It has become progressively more polarized, more vitriolic, the electoral process has become much more toxic than in the past, and we are no exception," he said.
The examples are numerous. An Associated Press report revealed that 53,000 applications for registration on the electoral lists were pending, thanks to a law known as the "exact match".
Voter information should exactly match other government records. A misplaced union or an initial average instead of the full name may block an application. Critics have called the law too restrictive.
Although most of these electors can still vote on polling day if they provide a photo ID photo, the experts said that the "pending" registration status meant that their votes could be challenged and their registrations could be deleted.
Roberts questioned Kemp about these allegations.
"It's a myth that Democrats make appear every two years," he said. "We have a record number of people on our electoral lists, we have a record number of people voting in the presidential election." I created, through the legislature, and put in place online registration of voters. "
But of these 53,000 pending applications, 80% are African-American, Latin American or Asian-American – electoral blocs that, without being monolithic, tend to tip the Democrats.
When asked about this, Kemp referred to the voter registration group founded by Abrams, the New Georgia Project. The goal of the group was to register the voters of minorities.
Last year, the State Elections Board referred 53 allegedly falsified voter applications to the Attorney General's Office in Georgia, out of 87,000 filed in 2014.
The Attorney General finally concluded that the group had committed no wrongdoing.
Yet Kemp said that minorities are part of the targeted people "because that's the person that his group has engaged".
"There is no purge," he added. "We follow the federal laws to keep our voters lists clean.This word, purge, is outrageous."
The exact match requirements do not apply only to registrations. There is also a signature matching requirement in Georgia that has prompted local election officials to reject ballot papers and absentee applications if officials, who are not trained in handwriting analysis, determine that any signature does not correspond to the other files.
Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked the practice of election officials in Georgia from discarding mail ballots due to mismatched signatures and ordered officials to provide provisional ballots to these voters.
Kemp appealed this decision, calling the absentee vote "privilege and convenience" and not constitutional law.
John Bazemore-Pool / Getty"We are backing away"
Lana Goitia, a 21-year-old student from the University of North Georgia, said she had asked for a ballot by mail, wishing to vote in her first mid-term election.
"It's pretty exciting to have the opportunity to have a say in big decisions for a state and for our governance, so it's very important and exciting for me," she said.
His home voting office is located in Loganville, about an hour's drive from his campus. As she is working and attending classes, she knew that she could not go there on polling day and asked for a mail ballot.
"I made sure to fill it correctly, then I sent it," she recalls. About two weeks later, she said: "I have been notified of the rejection of the proposal".
She added that she had been told that her signature was different from the one on the voter registration application from four years ago.
"I received a notice stating that the project had been rejected, but before rejection, I received no notice saying," Look, they do not fit, "she said. I have not received a procedure to, you know, fix my ballot or have him reinstated before the rejection. "
Goitia said that, as a young Hispanic woman, she felt that her ballot was targeted.
"I think votes like mine scare Secretary Kemp," she said. "I think these are the votes that are likely to be challenged, and they may face obstacles because I think that young people, especially those belonging to minority groups, are groups of which he is afraid."
Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have filed lawsuits demanding hundreds of ballot papers and applications have been launched. A judge ended the practice last week and Kemp appealed, calling the absentee vote "privilege and convenience".
Kemp's office said it was trying to protect the integrity of polling stations and prevent electoral fraud. However, according to experts, electoral fraud in Georgia is almost non-existent. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has found that Georgian officials have brought 19 prosecutions for electoral fraud over the past two decades. Seven of these cases resulted in a criminal conviction.
Joshua L. Jones / Athens Banner-Herald via AP
Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, some states that had a history of disenfranchisement were required to report any changes in access to the vote to the federal government. A landmark Supreme Court decision in 2012, Shelby County v Holder set aside these requirements. As a result, according to some experts, the electoral repression is on the rise.
Bondurant, who discusses civil rights cases since the 1960s, sees this as a cause for concern.
"I am both surprised and disappointed that 50 years after the adoption of the law on the right to vote, we were going in the opposite direction, making it more difficult for people to vote," he said. declared.
A study by the American Civil Rights Commission examined five common tactics of voter repression. The study determined that the laws on voter identification, requirements for proof of citizenship, purges, early voting discounts and polling station closures. Georgia is the only state under federal control to have adopted the five countries.
Abrams has asked Kemp to step down as secretary of state, along with former Georgia president and governor Jimmy Carter.
"I will say that as the ACLU of Georgia, we would prefer not to sue any of the candidates for governorship, while we have to sue the secretary of state on the how elections are administered, "said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU. from Georgia.
But Kemp resisted, saying he was acting the same way as other elected officials, including Democrat Cathy Cox, who had remained Georgian state secretary when she was running for governor.
Despite all the allegations, the number of advance votes has already been higher in Georgia than at the last round, with lines that can last up to three hours in some polling places.
In Jesup, Badami said that he saw himself in Kemp.
"I think we have a lot in common," he said. "We are talking about conservative values.Immigration is important … I like the fact that he is talking about paying more teachers and supporting the forces of order."
In Dooley County, Michael, who refused to give his last name, said he saw himself in Kemp.
"He is conservative, he believes in the second amendment, cuts taxes and simply believes in the same kind of conservative values as me," he said. And when asked if these values were in danger if Abrams was elected, he replied: "Absolutely."
In Newnan, Stavros is optimistic.
"My hope for Georgia is that we are seen as a progressive state that promotes equality, and I do not see what could go wrong with progress and equality.
"Democracy dies in darkness and requires participation," she said. "And I would never really live with myself if I did not participate in trying to save him."
ABC News & # 39; Lauren Pearle contributed to this report.
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