Stacey Abrams group ordered to repay $231,000 for failed election lawsuit
Ryan King
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A dark money group founded by Stacey Abrams in 2018 was ordered Tuesday to repay the state of Georgia $231,000 after losing a lawsuit over election laws.
Fair Fight Action and other plaintiffs lost the four-year case last September, which accused the Peach State of infringing voting rights, and they must compensate roughly $193,000 for trial costs and $38,000 for exhibit copies used in the case. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger welcomed the news, but he argued Abrams should pay even more.
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“This is a win for taxpayers and voters who knew all along that Stacey Abrams[‘s] voter suppression claims were false, it has never been easier to vote and harder to cheat in the state of Georgia,” Raffensperger said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. “This is a start, but I think Stacey Abrams should pay back the millions of taxpayer dollars the state was forced to spend to disprove her false claims.”
In total, the suit cost the state close to $6 million, the Georgia attorney general’s office said. However, the court ruling does not include attorney fees for Georgia’s legal defense. Abrams founded Fair Fight Action in the aftermath of her loss to Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), contending state laws suppressed voting.
The group challenged state provisions such as the “exact match” voter registration system, the cancellation of absentee ballots, and more. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ultimately dismissed the case, ruling Georgia’s laws were not illegal. He conceded that state voting laws were not “perfect,” but determined they did not flout the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution.
“Although Georgia’s election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the Voting Rights Act,” his ruling indicated, adding that Fair Fight Action failed to provide “evidence of a voter who was unable to vote, experienced longer wait times, was confused about voter registration status.”
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Abrams lost her rematch against Kemp during the 2022 midterm elections. Her campaign reported $1.4 million in debt on Monday. Prior to that election, the state underwent additional election law reforms with the stated intent of shoring up election integrity, which Abrams rebuked.
“Georgia’s election laws strike an appropriate balance between election security and voter convenience,” Raffensperger said. “We saw record voter turnout in 2022, extremely high voter turnout for a midterm election, at levels that prove claims of voter suppression are just as trumped up as claims of stolen elections.”
The Washington Examiner contacted Fair Fight Action for comment.