This Is What They're Really Worried About

It's amazing what slips out of the mouths of Republicans when they think no one's listening:

Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State and the Republican nominee for Georgia governor, expressed at a ticketed campaign event that his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams’ voter turnout operation “continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote,” according to audio obtained by Rolling Stone.

Lest you think this is some sort of fluke:

Kemp’s recent decision to suspend more than 53,000 voter applications, 70 percent of which were filed by black residents, for violating the state’s “exact match” verification standard has drawn attention to his penchant for restrictive voter laws and purging of voter rolls. American Public Media reported last week that Kemp purged an estimated 107,000 voters last year simply because they didn’t vote in the prior election. He is also being sued for leaving more than 6 million Georgia voting records open to hacking.

Kemp, a staunch Trump supporter who has echoed the president’s language concerning Russia’s election interference, was also the only Secretary of State in the nation to refuse Homeland Security’s help prior to the 2016 election.

One other reason that Kemp’s “right to vote” line is potentially alarming is that he is facing another lawsuit after reports that an abnormal number of absentee ballots — 595, more than a third of the state’s total and 300 of which reportedly belong to black and Asian American voters — have been rejected in the state’s most racially diverse county, Gwinnett. The Georgia Muslim Voter Project and Asian-American Advancing Justice-Atlanta filed suit last Monday to request that three days be provided after the election for rejected voters to resolve the matter so that their ballots count.

Kemp is not unique -- in every state with Republican majorities in the legislature, or Republicans dominating the executive, there are major efforts to keep likely Democratic voters (i.e., minorities) from voting. This should really come as no surprise: they've been talking for years about gaining a "permanent majority". Their policies are highly unpopular -- at least, among normal people -- and the Republicans in Congress (yes, Mitch McConnell, I'm talking about you) have no compunction about changing the rules to maintain their hold on power.

"Permanent majority" -- by whatever means necessary.

Via Towleroad.