The Georgia NAACP has filed an official complaint after several voters reported their voting machines changed their votes for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to votes for her opponent, current Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
The electronic complaint, submitted on Tuesday, cited problems with ballot machines in Bartow, Cobb, Henry and Dodge Counties, according to a press release. Georgia NAACP President Phyllis Blake said this is an ongoing issue.
"We’ve experienced this before," Blake told USA Today. “They ended up taking these old dilapidated machines out of service. The ones giving the problems. They should have been replaced about 10 years ago."
Pamela Grimes said when she tried to submit her ballot in Bartow County, she had to press the box marked for Abrams several times before it allowed her to vote.
“I was not going to leave until everything was the way I wanted it,’’ she said. “If I had not been focused, my vote would have went for him.”
Grimes has used her experience to teach others an important lesson.
“I’ve been telling people when you vote to pay attention,’’ she said.
Kemp has been at the center of a debate on voter suppression, The Cut reports. He has been accused of purging over 50,000 people from Georgia’s voter rolls because their information wasn’t an exact match with information filed by the Department of Driver Services.
Kemp spokeswoman Candice Broce said the office is willing to investigate the matter.
"If warranted, our office will open a formal investigation on behalf of the State Election Board,'' Broce wrote in an email. "We always encourage voters to reach out to our office if they experience any issues or witness any suspicious activity at the polls."
Blake, however, believes the faulty machines are another suppression tactic.
“We’ve had a steady stream of reported malfunctions of voting machines and refuse to sit idly by while this election is compromised,” Blake said in the press release. “The recent Rachel Maddow show on voter suppression in Georgia highlighted some of the clear conflict of interest issues surrounding Kemp and his failure to protect the integrity of the vote and democracy in Georgia. We just want him to know the world is watching.”
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