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Fair Fight Doubles Down on Efforts to Push Back Against Mass Challenges and Intimidation Following Federal Court Ruling in Suit Against True the Vote
ATLANTA — Judge Steve C. Jones today issued a ruling in the federal voting rights case Fair Fight v. True the Vote, which was tried over three weeks in October and November 2023. Through the litigation, Fair Fight challenged the vote-suppressing tactics embraced by the Texas-based organization True the Vote (TTV)—including mass voter challenges and other forms of alleged intimidation ahead of the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia.
In the weeks leading to the January 5, 2021 runoff, TTV announced plans to challenge the eligibility of 364,000 registered Georgia voters — alleged by TTV to be the largest mass challenge effort in state history. The group also engaged in other aggressive tactics Fair Fight contends intimidated eligible voters, including the recruitment of Navy SEALs and “citizen watchdogs” to patrol polling stations and surveil ballot drop boxes, and offering a $1 million fund to incentivize and compensate reports of alleged “illegal voting.”
“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,” said Fair Fight Executive Director Cianti Stewart-Reid. “Over the last two years, we have seen a growing number of groups follow suit across the country, drawing from True the Vote’s anti-voter playbook to launch their own mass voter challenge efforts that continue to this day.”
While the Court declined to find the actions by TTV in 2021 amounted to unlawful intimidation, the ruling included stark criticisms of the organization’s process for challenging voters. From the very first page of the opinion, the Court reiterated its ongoing concerns about TTV’s practices, later noting that TTV’s approach to list maintenance “utterly lacked reliability” and “verges on recklessness.” (Order at 90.)
“As the federal court weighed the evidence presented about True the Vote’s tactics in the 2021 runoff elections, it did not hold back its criticisms of the Texas group’s methods,” said Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, counsel for the Plaintiffs. “To the contrary, the 145-page opinion expressly states the Court ‘in no way[] is condoning TTV’s actions in facilitating a mass number of seemingly frivolous challenges.’ (Order at 123 n. 60). And yet, the district court ordered no relief for Georgia voters, instead pointing to the actions of the Georgia General Assembly which, after this suit was filed, amended the state’s challenge laws ‘to make clear there was no numerical limitation on voter challenges.’”
In a further condemnation of TTV’s practices, the Court’s ruling stated that “[i]t is clear that True the Vote did not engage in a quality process to create the list, nor did they have proper review or controls in place.” (Order at 91.)
TTV has long faced legal scrutiny over allegations of its incendiary rhetoric and dangerous disinformation about election integrity. Despite that legal scrutiny, it appears TTV continues to recruit, train, and mobilize conspiracy theorists as part of a district-by-district, county-by-county, state-by-state strategy to embolden individuals to undertake the types of tactics that lead to voter intimidation and significant burdens on election administrators.
“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” said Stewart-Reid. “As always, Fair Fight remains steadfast in our commitment to protect voters—both within and outside the courtroom—and advocate for our constitutional right to vote, free from fear of harassment and intimidation.”
Media can find additional background on mass challenges, Fair Fight v. True the Vote, and key takeaways from trial proceedings via the following resources:
- Case Timeline and Key Background
- ICYMI: Fair Fight v. True the Vote Pre-Trial Press Briefing
- ICYMI: Top Takeaways From Fair Fight Press Conference Ahead of Oct. 26 Trial
- Key Trial Takeaways – Days 1-3
- Key Trial Takeaways – Days 4-6
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Fair Fight Endorses Slate of Seven Georgia Candidates Committed to Protecting the Freedom to Vote
ATLANTA — Fair Fight today announced their endorsement of six pro-voter, pro-democracy candidates for the November 2023 Municipal elections, including three incumbents. This endorsement announcement follows their endorsement of incumbent Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson earlier this summer.
“Fair Fight is proud to endorse this diverse slate of pro-voter candidates for the November 7th municipal elections,” said Fair Fight Political Director Nicole Robinson. “Each of these candidates have been advocates for voters in their communities in and outside of elected office. We look forward to supporting them in their elections so they can continue to be advocates for expanding voter access in their communities.”
The full slate of Fair Fight’s endorsed candidates in Georgia includes:
- Mayor Van R. Johnson (Mayor of Savannah)
- Councilmember Corey B. Morgan (Camilla City Council District 1- Post 1)
- Commissioner Demetrius Young (Albany City Commission Ward 6)
- Councilmember Solange Destang (Snellville City Council Post 2)
- Dele Lowman (Mayor of Stonecrest)
- Councilwoman Ceretta Smith (Mayor of Grovetown)
- Anthony Gutierrez (Kennesaw City Council Post 2)
“These endorsements come at a time when anti-voter activists and elected officials are attacking the right to vote for Georgians at all levels of government, including the local level,” said Robinson. “As far-right conspiracy theorists and election deniers across the country continue to advance a nationally-coordinated effort to restrict access to the ballot, attack election administration, and subvert the will of voters, it is more important than ever that Georgians are represented by champions of democracy across all levels of government.”
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ICYMI: Key Takeaways from Battleground Democracy Briefing on Mass Voter Challenges in GA, Impact on Election Administration, and Groups Leading Anti-Voter Efforts
ICYMI: Key Takeaways from Battleground Democracy Briefing on Mass Voter Challenges in GA, Impact on Election Administration, and Groups Leading Anti-Voter Efforts
ATLANTA — Yesterday, Fair Fight hosted the third in a series of “Battleground Democracy” briefings to provide media with insight into the current landscape for voting access as we approach the 2024 Presidential Election and the escalating threats to our democracy amid a coordinated nationwide right-wing effort to undermine elections.
The briefing covered the latest developments around mass voter challenges in Georgia and included remarks from Fair Fight leadership in addition to the respective former Chairs of the Boards of Registration and Elections for Fulton and DeKalb Counties, Cathy Woolard and Dele Lowman, respectively. The briefing provided an overview of Fair Fight’s most recent Battleground Democracy memo highlighting four groups we believe are leading efforts to restrict voter access and hamper election administration, burdening both voters and election workers alike.
Takeaways and excerpts from the briefing can be read below.
You can view slides from the presentation here. The full recording is available upon request.
TAKEAWAY #1 – ANTI-VOTER EXTREMISTS APPEAR TO BE ENGAGED IN A STATE-BY-STATE, PRECINCT-BY-PRECINCT STRATEGY TO DISRUPT U.S. ELECTIONS
“Across the country, anti-voter extremists, Republican lawmakers, and election-denying conspiracy peddlers are waging what appears to be a coordinated effort to push access to the ballot out of reach, subvert election outcomes, and sow chaos in election administration.” – Fair Fight Executive Director Cianti Stewart-Reid
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“The far-right playbook is three-pronged: restrict voter access, attack election administration, and subvert the will of voters.” – Cianti Stewart-Reid
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“These efforts don’t take place in a silo, but rather they’re part of a coordinated, state-by-state, precinct-by-precinct strategy to leverage undemocratic tactics that restrict voter access and hamper election administration.” – Cianti Stewart-Reid
TAKEAWAY #2 – GEORGIA CONTINUES TO SERVE AS A TESTING GROUND FOR ANTI-VOTER TACTICS AND CATALYST FOR NATIONWIDE TRENDS
“Mass challenges have become core to this effort, with Georgia serving as the testing ground for an alarming and dangerous strategy to make administering elections more difficult while intimidating and harassing voters the GOP deems undesirable.” – Cianti Stewart-Reid
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“Some far-right groups — many of them with ties to Donald Trump — are now weaponizing…disinformation and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election to enlist and train individual citizens to help drive their efforts to purge eligible voters from the rolls.” – Fair Fight Director of Strategic Communications Xakota Espinoza
TAKEAWAY #3 – FAILURE BY THE STATE ELECTIONS BOARD (SEB) TO PROVIDE COUNTIES WITH GUIDANCE ON ADMINISTERING MASS CHALLENGES HAS LED TO MASS CONFUSION AND DISPARITIES ACROSS 159 COUNTIES
“And despite the fact that SB 202 passed more than two years ago, the Georgia State Election Board has still failed to provide counties any guidance on how to process challenges. This results in different interpretations of how to adhere to SB 202 across 159 counties.” – Cianti Stewart-Reid
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“What causes a lot of confusion and frustration is…the lack of guidance from the State Election Board that we have asked for repeatedly to help us to understand where we should weigh in and what type of criteria outside of the broad guidance that is given in law to determine whether these challenges…should be substantiated.” – Dele Lowman, former Chair of the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections
TAKEAWAY #4 – THE COST OF ADMINISTERING ELECTIONS IN FULTON COUNTY HAS SKYROCKETED AS A RESULT OF MASS CHALLENGES AND OTHER UNFUNDED MANDATES THAT PLACE SIGNIFICANT BURDENS ON ELECTION WORKERS
“While operating under the guise of so-called ‘list maintenance’ and the need for ‘clean voter rolls,’ in reality these challenges are placing significant burdens on voters and election workers alike.” – Xakota Espinoza
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“[Mass voter challenges] bottlenecked our staff from doing their own priority work that they need[ed] to do to get ready for an election.” – Cathy Woolard, former Chair of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections
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“We got…just a ton of open records requests. In fact, we get so many that we were really contemplating trying to have a single staff person dedicated full-time to fulfilling open records requests.” – Cathy Woolard
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“We have had legal challenges, including legal challenges on Election Day — from people who just decided something was going wrong, and we’d have to pack up our Election Director and run over to the courthouse and answer questions — which were dismissed because they were false and distracting.” – Cathy Woolard
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“The cost of elections, particularly since Senate Bill 202, ha[s] gotten incredibly more expensive. In Fulton County, it’s 4 to 5 times higher than the cost of elections were in 2018. That is a very short period of time for a huge escalation in price, and people come down and complain about the pricing…we’ve gone from about $2 per voter per election — so that’s primaries, runoffs, generals — to now, $6 to $9 per voter. ” – Cathy Woolard
TAKEAWAY #5 – VOTERS OF COLOR ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY TARGETED AND BURDENED BY MASS VOTER CHALLENGES
“It became very clear, as we saw the pattern of these challenges, that certain groups were being targeted. That included students who may live on campus at various colleges in DeKalb County, people who were experiencing homelessness, and individuals with obviously ethnic names…While there was the claim that there was no targeting by race, zip code is a proxy for race.” – Dele Lowman
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“It’s clear to me that this is part of an overall strategy to disenfranchise voters that these groups deem to be undesirable.” – Dele Lowman
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“True The Vote relied on rejected claims of voter fraud in an attempt to justify their efforts to challenge voters immediately before the January 5 runoff in 2021. They had announced that they had planned to help facilitate challenges against 364,000 Georgia voters, and ultimately, [True the Vote] worked with local Georgians to submit challenges against a total of 250,783 registered Georgia voters across 65 counties immediately before the 2021 runoff. And these challenges were more likely to be made in counties with larger populations of Black and Brown voters.” – Xakota Espinoza
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“By allowing these ongoing challenges, it drives further distrust in the process which only fuels that narrative that people are voting who should not be voting. And it leads to the types of behavior that we saw on January 6, and continue targeting through legislation that undermines our access to the vote.” – Dele Lowman
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Fair Fight Action Commends the Reintroduction of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in Congress and Urges the House to Pass This Important Legislation
Group praises Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) for her long time commitment to the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and urges bipartisan support to pass the legislation
ATLANTA — Today, Fair Fight Actionreleased a statement praising the reintroduction of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the House of Representatives and urging Congress to pass this critical voting rights legislation. The organization commends Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) for reintroducing the bill in Congress and for her commitment to voting rights.
The landmark bill, whose importance befits its names and the legacy of Congressman John Lewis, would provide much-needed mechanisms to stop discriminatory voting laws and dissuade their passage and enactment in the future. The JLVRAA would update and strengthen necessary preclearance protections established via the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and gutted with the 2013 Shelby v. Holder Supreme Court decision. Preclearance—or the federal review of any voting changes proposed by states with a history of racial discrimination—is more crucial than ever, given the spate of anti-voter laws passed throughout the country and the additional erosion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brnovich v. DNC.
The JLVRAA, and the tools it provides to address discriminatory voter practices, are needed now, more than ever. A decade after the Supreme Court gutted the “preclearance” protection in Shelby v Holder, at least 29 states have passed almost 100 laws that make it harder to vote, with the burden falling hardest on voters of color.
Fair Fight Action implores members of Congress to come together and pass the JLVRAA. Our elected representatives must take action to shore up democracy in America during a time when it is greatly imperiled.
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Fair Fight Action Releases Statement Calling on City of Atlanta to End Anti-Voter Tactics and Put ‘Cop City’ Referendum on Ballot
ATLANTA — Fair Fight Action today released a statement calling on the City of Atlanta to put an end to the suppressive, anti-voter tactics being deployed against proponents of the ‘Cop City’ referendum and heed the calls of thousands of constituents by moving forward with the ballot.
The anti-voter efforts to stifle opposition to the construction of a new police training facility in the South River Forest—referred to by some residents and opponents as ‘Cop City’ has reached a fever pitch. The proposed facility has prompted vocal protestation within the Atlanta community, and has drawn widespread criticism from environmental justice and criminal legal reform organizations both within the state of Georgia and nationwide. This week, opponents to ‘Cop City’ submitted over 116,000 signatures to the City of Atlanta in support of a referendum. The petition was met with pushback from the City of Atlanta, in addition to attempts by city leaders to disqualify the referendum in court.
Fair Fight Action Executive Director Cianti Stewart-Reid released the following statement:
“We are at an inflection point for democracy in Atlanta—a city with a long, powerful history of activism and a cradle of the civil rights movement. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, the fact remains that some Atlanta leaders are not listening to the voices of voters who elected them to represent their community and values.
Instead, they are following the same tired anti-voter playbook that has been wielded against voters of color for generations: moving the goal posts for change, defaulting to less transparency, hiding behind courts and falling back on the same shameful anti-voter tactics being deployed by extremists across the country to stifle political participation and dissent. These actions are designed to silence the voices of voters—and they cannot stand. The suppressive actions of those in power have gone so far as to provide cover for bad actors like Attorney General Chris Carr to attack bail funds and the right to protest, using disturbing anti-democratic tactics meant to chill free speech and other constitutionally-enshrined rights. Democracy is hard-won—especially in Georgia. Regardless of party, we must never stop fighting for it.
City of Atlanta: Put Cop City on the ballot. Let the people decide. Rather than model suppressive actions for future anti-voter bad actors, be better. Demonstrate to all those watching what democracy in action truly looks like.”
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Fair Fight Action Releases Statement Condemning Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr for Anti-Democratic Prosecution of Atlanta Bail Fund Organizers
ATLANTA — Fair Fight Action today released the following statement in response to the organized crime charges filed by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr against 61 individuals— including three organizers for an Atlanta bail fund—involved in activism efforts opposing the construction of a new police training facility in the South River Forest.
“The recent charges filed by Attorney General Carr represent a disturbing set of anti-democratic tactics by state leaders to chill speech and dissent. In an alarming escalation of efforts to criminalize constitutionally-protected activity, Carr—the disgraced former chair of a group involved in recruitment for the January 6 insurrection—has chosen to directly assault the infrastructure of bail funds.
Bail funds have long served a vital role as buffers against abuses of state power. Dating back to the Civil Rights era, many bail funds exist to protect against spurious arrest and prosecution of activists and organizers. At best, these charges raise serious alarms for the right to protest in Georgia; at worst, they may represent a concerted effort to discourage protest through potentially unjust prosecution.
Fair Fight Action calls on Attorney General Carr to drop this prosecution. The charges are a harm to Georgians’ civil rights, and must be vigorously denounced by any who believe in the continued protections and assurances of the U.S. Constitution.”
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