More than three years after Stacey Abrams filed a suit against Georgia officials for election mismanagement, the lawsuit is going to trial on Monday, according to CBS News.
Abrams ended her bid to to become the governor of Georgia in 2018 and announced her plan to push back against the way the state was handling their election processes.
That November, her organization Abrams’ Fair Fight Action filed a suit alongside Care in Action — a nonprofit that advocates for domestic workers — that alleged that state officials “grossly mismanaged” the election, resulting in voter suppression of Georgia residents, particularly low-income people and people of color.
According to CBS, Fair Fight says it works to promote voting rights and support progressive candidates around the country, and its PAC has raised more than $100 million since it began.
The suit asked a federal judge to find that Georgia’s elections processes violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law, and Fair Fight collected statements from people who said they had problems voting, including the “purging” of eligible voters from voter rolls under a “use it or lose it” policy, the state’s “exact match” voter registration rules, an insufficient number of voting machines at some precincts, and a lack of sufficient training for election officials, according to the outlet.
“Since the start of this lawsuit, we have highlighted real voters and their challenges because we believe that is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate the barriers in Georgia’s elections system,” Fair Fight executive director Cianti Stewart-Reid said to CBS.
Abrams’ 2018 competition was Brian Kemp, a Republican, then-secretary of state.
Abrams believed Kemp was utilizing his position as a Georgia chief elections officer to take part in the voter suppression, which Kemp has denied, according to the outlet.
Originally, the lawsuit called for a complete overhaul of the state’s elections. Since then, the scope has been narrowed after some of the allegations were addressed by the state — including plans to replace old voting machines — and others were dismissed by the court for being irrelevant, according to CBS.
CBS says Abrams is the only Democrat running for governor, and she will be running against Kemp again if he wins in his primary.
It is currently unclear if the changes would affect elections this upcoming year if U.S. District Judge Steve Jones sides with Abrams’ Fair Fight.
According to CBS, Jones and other federal judges have been hesitant to change rules last-minute, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly said federal judges shouldn’t alter rules “on the eve of an election.” Lawyers for the state argue that the claims “are not supported by the evidence.”