Staff Reports
The group, which was founded by Stacey Abrams, was ordered to pay the state of Georgia over $231,000.
The four-year lawsuit brought by Fair Fight Action and other groups against the state of Georgia ended last September. As a result, they were ordered to pay around $193,000 in trial costs and $38,000 in exhibit copies. However, Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary of State of Georgia, argued that the amount should be much higher.
"According to Raffensperger, this is a victory for Georgia's taxpayers and voters, who knew that the allegations made by Stacey about voter suppression were false. However, he noted that she should pay back the state the money it spent to disprove her claims."
According to the attorney general's office, the total cost of the case was around $6 million. However, the court ruled that the state did not have to pay attorney fees. In the lawsuit, Fair Fight Action claimed that Georgia's laws prevented people from casting ballots.
The group had tried to challenge various provisions of the state's election laws, such as the registration system known as the "exact match." After the case was dismissed, US District Judge Steve Jones stated that the laws in Georgia were not illegal. He also noted that they did not violate the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act.
"Despite the shortcomings of Georgia's election system, the judge noted that the laws did not violate the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution. He also stated that Fair Fight Action did not provide sufficient evidence to show that the state's laws affected people's ability to vote."
During the 2018 midterm elections, which were held two years after the previous election, Brian Kemp was able to defeat former Georgia governor Stacey Abrams. After the election, her campaign reported that it had about $1.4 million in debt. As a result, she criticized the state's efforts to improve its election system.
"According to Raffensperger, the laws in Georgia were designed to ensure that the state's voters have a secure and convenient election. He noted that the high voter turnout in the midterm elections of 2022 showed that the claims about voter suppression were just as baseless as those about stolen elections."
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Washington Examiner.
