The race for Georgia governor is heating up again, this time with new charges of voter suppression lodged against Secretary of State Brian Kemp who is also the Republican candidate.

The campaign of Democrat Stacey Abrams called on Kemp to resign this week after a story from the Associated Press which outlined a check of voter registration records. AP reported that 53,000 voters are on hold so to speak and that 70 percent of them are African Americans.

The Kemp campaign responded to us Friday saying this is “manufactured for political gain” and called the Abrams claims “ridiculous.”

The Abrams campaign, however, says the issue is about the right to vote.

“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 them are people of color,” said Abigail Collazo, a spokesperson with the Abrams campaign.

Collazo said with the race in a virtual tie “it is not a surprise that Kemp is reprising these tactics and that Kemp needs to resign his position so Georgia voters can have confidence that their Secretary of State can competently and impartially oversee this election.”

Earlier this week, Kemp had tweeted that Abrams “and her radical friends are being dishonest.”

Kemp and his campaign staff tell News 3 that this is a pending list and that anyone on it can vote on November 6 by showing identification at the polls.

Kemp’s tweet also laid responsibility for the problem away from his door and closer to the door of Abrams herself. He said that a group Abrams had been associated with had registered voters several years back but had been “sloppy” on the registration forms which was resulting in forms being flagged.

We heard from one viewer however who said he had been registered for 30 years and was shocked to find out a few months ago he was on this pending list. He found out it had to do with his full middle name not being on his driver’s license, but it was on his voter registration form. He seemed surprised such a relatively small detail could kick him off the verified voting list. He also told us it took him three months to correct it with the Department of Motor Vehicles and he is concerned that other voters may not realize their status until election day. (Again, the Kemp campaign says anyone on this “pending” list can vote.)

In terms of the pending list, the issue is the “Exact Match System” which requires the kind of precise verification (exact name, etc.) that our viewer found surprising and concerning. Critics say that something as innocent as a type or as simple as a hyphenated name (without the hyphen) can kick a voter out.

A spokesman for the Kemp campaign pointed out that the Exact Match System is a state law. However, that law was passed only recently in the 2017-2018 legislative session. Critics say Kemp used the system to disqualify voters long before it was sanctioned by the state. The law was in response to legal action against the Secretary of State’s office over the use of the system and apparently, some legislators wanted to make sure that going forward – Kemp or any other Secretary of State could use the system without threats of a lawsuit.

Despite that, the Abrams campaign has long maintained that a man running for Governor should not be overseeing the statewide election system that will decide if he gets a new job.

By Friday evening, the call for Kemp to resign still stood. And Kemp showed no signs of being too concerned.

