Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger doesn’t agree with U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order against state election laws and ordering more than 4,000 individuals to be reinstated to voter rolls.
Gardner ordered Ben Hill and Muscogee counties to reinstate the voters who had previously filed change of address notices with the U.S. Postal Service.
"This ruling is a direct attack on rule of law in Georgia and the integrity of elections in this state, and I will not stand for it," Raffensperger said in a statement, Fox News reported. "Without even hearing from Muscogee County, an Obama-appointed judge has decided to overturn the express will of Georgia law and the county elections officers around the state who follow it."
Raffensperger said, the news media reported, that the decision violated the counties’ rights to challenge ballots and causes election insecurity. He was unhappy that Gardner ruled on the case that was brought by a group that is funded by her sister, former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
The counties were attempting to invalidate more than 4,000 voter registrations for voters whose addresses couldn’t be verified because they had filed address change notices with the postal service.
Muscogee County officials sought to have Gardner recuse herself from the case, but she refused to do so.
"The Court has reviewed the motion and finds no basis for recusal. An Order detailing the Court’s reasoning is forthcoming," the judge wrote, Fox News reported.
Gardner said in her ruling that invalidating the votes would be a violation of federal law because voters can provide a written confirmation of their change of address before they are removed from the voter rolls.
She ruled that the counties were not including individualized inquiries, which would keep them within guidelines of the federal law.
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