Democrat Stacey Abrams, who has still not conceded her 2018 election loss to Republican Brian Kemp, has a novel take on Georgia’s record-shattering early voter turnout.
Even better, she is getting an early start on her latest round of election denial by lining up culprits to explain away what many believe will be a shattering defeat.
RealClearPolitics’ aggregate polling numbers have Abrams losing by an average of 8.1 points, and some surveys put her deficit in double digits. In 2018 she blamed the mythical scourge of “voter suppression,” and she returned to that same playbook for 2022.
Interviewed on MSNBC, Abrams was forced to admit that Georgia is seeing record turnout from African-American and Latino voters. There have already been an estimated half a million voters cast ballots this year who sat out her 2018 defeat.
On Saturday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a staggering 2.5 million votes had been cast either in person or by absentee ballot as of Friday.
Even more remarkably, Friday’s tally of 231,063 votes was higher than the last day for early voting in the 2020 presidential election.
In the same breath, Stacey Abrams says that Georgia saw both record turnout and voter suppression…at the same time. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/qpefJOCj8Y
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) November 7, 2022
To tally this many early votes, even in an off-year election, indicates to a reasonable person that Georgia’s election process is efficient and user-friendly.
But that’s not enough for the chronic election denier. With a straight face, Abrams declared that “our voters” are navigating the “difficulties” instituted by Raffensperger and incumbent Gov. Kemp.
The Democrat added that “White supremacist groups and hard right-wing groups” have created challenges for Georgia’s electorate.
As for her lagging support among the Black community, Abrams ignores the mess created by her party and falls back on “misinformation.” Despite record minority turnout thus far, she claimed that “Black men have been a very targeted population for misinformation.”
The candidate is never far away from what made her a media darling after her previous defeat. But blaming a voting system that increased election integrity while still producing a record early turnout sounds like an excuse spun by a sore loser.
