What s True
U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner is the sister of Stacey Abrams, and ruled on a voter-registration case that was very similar to another case before a different district court in Georgia, which involved Abrams voting rights organization Fair Fight. What s False
Neither Abrams nor Fair Fight were a party to the specific case before Abrams Gardner in the Middle District of Georgia in December 2020. The case involving Abrams and Fair Fight was overseen by a different judge in a different court.
Origin
In December 2020, right-leaning observers and prominent Republican politicians cried foul after a federal court judge blocked attempts to remove thousands of names from voter rolls in Georgia, ahead of January’s two U.S. Senate run-off elections in the state.
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Source: AP Photo/John Bazemore
A conservative effort to ensure people don’t illegally vote hit a snag when a district judge blocked two Georgia counties from purging thousands of voters from local rolls who might have moved out of the county. The basis for the legal challenge from True The Vote is grounded in the United States Postal Service’s National Change of Address registry, which Majority Forward, a liberal voter advocacy group, said was unreliable. Yet, the judge has an interesting tie to Stacey Abrams, a rising star in the Democratic Party for her failed 2018 gubernatorial run. The judge who issued the ruling in favor of Majority Forward is her sister (via CBS News):
Judge Blocks 2 Georgia Counties From Removing Thousands From Voter Rolls
A federal judge on Dec. 28 ordered two counties in Georgia to stop the removal of thousands of voters from voter rolls.
Election boards in Ben Hill and Muscogee counties this month ruled there was probable cause to sustain challenges to thousands of registered voters. The challenges cited the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address in asserting that some voters had moved to a different county or state.
But District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner sister of former Democrat gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams wrote in her order that the boards didn’t appear to have received written confirmation that the voters had changed their addresses.
Judge blocks attempted voter purge in two Georgia counties ahead of runoffs By Melissa Quinn Record-breaking fundraising in Georgia Senate races
Washington A federal judge in Georgia on Monday blocked two Georgia counties from removing more than 4,000 registered voters from their rolls and preventing them from casting a regular ballot in the January 5 runoff elections, which will determine which party controls the Senate.
U.S. District Judge Leslie Gardner sided with Majority Forward, a voter registration group, and Gamaliel Warren Turner, a Georgia voter, in their challenge to efforts by the boards of elections in Ben Hill County and Muscogee County that targeted a total of 4,185 registered voters.