Stacey Abrams' group loses fight against True the Vote's election integrity efforts

Fair Fight, an activist group founded by twice-failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, sued True the Vote over its efforts to bolster the integrity of the 2020 election. Fair Fight alleged the election watchdog had violated the Voting Rights Act's protections against voter intimidation.

Despite the Biden Department of Justice pressing its thumb on the scale in favor of Fair Fight, an Obama-appointed federal judge dealt Abrams yet another defeat Tuesday, ruling in favor of TTV.

Background

TTV, a Texas-based group involved in Dinesh D'Souza's "2000 Mules" film as well as a legal battle with the China-linked election software group Konnech, called into question the eligibility of over 364,000 voters before the January 2021 runoff election for two critical U.S. Senate seats in Georgia. The stakes were high as the close election would determine control of the Senate, and TTV figured there was good reason to suspect the voters had been ineligible to cast ballots owing to a change in residency.

According to one of Fair Fight's trial experts, TTV had a hand in ultimately challenging 250,783 supposed Georgia voters across 65 counties.

Fair Fight filed a complaint against TTV on Dec. 23, 2020, alleging the election integrity group intimidated voters "through a multi-pronged approach: challenging voters' registrations based on unreliable information; recruiting citizen watchdogs and U.S. Navy SEALS to watch voters return their ballots and monitor polling places; and, offering a $1 million reward to incentivize its supporters to find evidence of alleged illegal voting."

Scott Berson, one of the plaintiffs, claimed during the trial that he returned to Georgia's Muscogee County after completing a master's degree at Auburn University to discover that his eligibility to vote in the upcoming races was in question, reported the Associated Press.

"It was a very discouraging and frustrating thing to hear," said Berson.

In January 2023, the Biden Department of Justice filed a brief in the suit on behalf of Fair Fight, attempting to poke holes in TTV's defense, particularly its sense that its voter challenges didn't amount to intimidation under state law.

Even with the DOJ's intervention, Abrams' group couldn't eke out a win.

Ruling

Judge Steve Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia indicated in his 145-page order that "no action taken by the Defendants in this case constitute voter intimidation."

While critical of TTV's list of possible ineligible voters, suggesting it "utterly lacked reliability," Jones acknowledged that there was insufficient evidence to show that "any voter in Georgia was reasonably intimidated by Defendants' actions."

Jones noted that the ultimate decision to cause a voter to provide additional information regarding their eligibility to vote in a particular county was up to the county boards of election.

"This intermediary between the challenger and the eligibility inquiry ... creates a significant causation issue for Plaintiffs case," wrote Jones. "It impugns the direct connection between the alleged intimidating conduct by Defendants and the voter allegedly intimidated, and breaks the chain of causation for purposes of establishing liability for voter intimidation."

Jones concluded, "Not only have Plaintiffs failed to overcome the fact that their actions did not result in any direct voter contact or alone include or direct county Boards of Elections to pursue an eligibility inquiry, but there is no evidence that Defendants’ actions caused (or attempted to cause) any voter to be intimidated, coerced, or threatened in voting."

Responses

Like its founder who has exhibited a tendency to deny legitimate results, Fair Fight didn't take the loss well.

"We believe True the Vote used Donald Trump's Big Lie as the basis to launch eligibility challenges against more than 364,000 Georgians ahead of the runoff—many of whom were Black, brown, and first-time voters," Fair Fight executive director Cianti Stewart-Reid said in a statement.

"Efforts by conspiracy theorists and anti-voter extremists to strip eligible voters from the rolls through mass voter challenges and aggressive voter purges are one of the biggest threats to our democracy and upcoming elections in 2024," added Stewart-Reid.

Fair Fight may be especially sore because Judge Jones rejected another of its lawsuits in September. Abrams' Fair Fight Action claimed in a complaint that Georgia had "grossly mismanaged" the 2018 election, depriving some citizens of their right to vote. Jones figured otherwise, stating, "Although Georgia's election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the VRA."

TTV president Catherine Engelbrecht said of the victory, "Today's ruling sends a clear message to those who would attempt to control the course of our nation through lawfare and intimidation. American citizens will not be silenced."

Jake Evans, lead TTV attorney, stated, "This decision is monumental. It vindicates True the Vote in totality and establishes that eligibility challenges under Section 230 are a proper method to ensure voter rolls are accurate. I am grateful to help achieve this great victory."

The election integrity group made clear that it "remains steadfast in its mission to support trustworthy elections and looks forward to assisting citizens in future such lawful efforts."

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