On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that thousands of voter registrations had been placed on hold under the state's "exact match" verification policy, which states that a resident's voter application must contain an exact replica of information already filed with both the Social Security Administration and Georgia's Department of Driver Services.
Now, should the application have any hiccups, it's immediately flagged and tossed into the "on hold" bin. Applications set aside ahead of Georgia elections belonged to voters of mostly minority groups in The Peach State, the majority of them being from African-American applicants. Less than 10 percent of the held applications were from white voters.
Brian Kemp, who is currently Georgia's Republican candidate for governor in the upcoming election, is in charge of voter registrations in the state. Kemp used the "exact match" voter system from 2013 to 2016 before he was forced to stop in 2017 as part of a settlement from a 2016 lawsuit. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the policy was later signed into law in April of 2017, with a 26-month time period for voters verify any suspect details.
Kemp's Democratic opponent, former state Rep. Stacey Abrams, joined in on the talks this week, stating that the Republican was using the voter policy to tilt the Georgia election, since it affects minority voters.
Kemp, for his part, has rejected the claims, stating on Twitter earlier this week that Abrams "manufactured a ‘crisis' to fire up her supporters and fundraise from left-wing radicals throughout the country."
According to AJC, residents wanting to cast their ballots in the midterm election will still have the chance, so long as they arrive with a government-issued photo ID that "substantially" matches their voter applications.