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The campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is demanding that her opponent Georgia Sec. of State Brian Kemp resigned after he carried out a purge that blocked 53,000 voters from the state’s rolls.

CNN reported:

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’ campaign is calling on Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp to resign following a report his office is using a controversial verification law to effectively suppress the minority vote in their race to become the state’s next governor.

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“As he has done for years, Brian Kemp is maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters — the majority of people of color,” Abrams spokeswoman Abigail Collazo said in a statement.

The Georgia exact match policy is 21st Century voter suppression, as 70% of the voter registrations that were held up belonged to minority voters. The Abrams/Kemp contest could be a very close election, so those 53,000 potential voters matter. Republicans can longer win elections straight up even in a red to slowly moving toward purple state like Georgia. They need to rig the game to win an election, and voter suppression has become their favorite tactic.

Republicans decided years ago that they could no longer win elections if everyone were able to vote, so they took legislative steps at the state level, like Georgia’s exact match policy which kicks a potential voter off of the rolls if there is even a slight difference between their voter registration application and their driver’s license, to make the electorate as white, old, and conservative as possible.

Republicans are engaging in election theft in plain sight in Georgia, and the only way to stop them is to do what the Abrams campaign is doing. Make a stink, and shine attention on a crime that operates best in political darkness.

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