Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 14 august 2019

Georgia's Abrams announces

new voter protection program

ATLANTA (AP) — Demo- Abrams revealed plans for press votes, especially in
crat Stacey Abrams, who the initiative, called Fair minority communities.
vaulted onto the national Fight 2020, during a speech Kemp vehemently denied
political stage champi- before a labor union con- the claim.
oning voting rights during vention in Las Vegas that Voters in that election re-
an unsuccessful 2018 run was livestreamed on Face- ported a myriad of prob-
for Georgia governor, an- book. The multimillion-dollar lems casting ballots includ-
nounced on Tuesday that project will staff and fund ing malfunctioning voting
she's launching a new mul- voter protection teams in equipment and long wait
This July 22, 2019, file photo shows former Georgia House Minor- tistate voter protection ini- battleground states across times that caused some
ity Leader Stacey Abrams addressing the 110th NAACP National
Convention, in Detroit. tiative and not running for the country ahead of next voters to give up in frustra-
Associated Press president in 2020. year's elections. tion.
The announcement follows In the days following Kemp's
months of speculation over narrow victory, Abrams
what Abrams' next move refused to concede the
in politics might be, includ- race. She quickly founded
ing whether she'd join the a political organization that
crowded field of 2020 presi- filed a federal lawsuit that
dential hopefuls as she had said state elections officials
mused. "grossly mismanaged" the
But that notion was put to election in a way that de-
rest as Abrams expressed prived some citizens of their
optimism that Democrats right to vote.
could make gains in the Abrams said her new group
next election. will fight "systematic" vot-
"We're going to win be- er suppression across the
cause there are only two country.
things stopping us in 2020: A statement from Fair Fight
making sure people have says the initiative will "either
a reason to vote and that directly fund, or assist in
they have the right to vote. raising the funds for, robust
Well I've decided to leave voter protection opera-
it to a whole bunch of oth- tions, which will be run by
er folks to make sure they Democratic state parties
have a reason to vote," and allies."
Abrams said, referring to "Fair Fight staff will provide
the field of Democratic ongoing support to these
candidates. operations," it says.
"But I'm here today to an- In February, Abrams was
nounce Fair Fight 2020 to tapped to deliver the Dem-
make sure everyone has ocratic response to Presi-
the right to vote," she said. dent Donald Trump's 2019
Abrams spokesman Seth State of the Union address.
Bringman confirmed that A few months later she an-
Abrams was not running nounced that she would
for president and would not run in 2020 for the U.S.
instead focus on the new Senate seat held by incum-
initiative. bent Georgia Republican
Abrams, former minor- Sen. David Perdue, after
ity leader of the Georgia being heavily recruited by
House, faced Republican Senate Democratic lead-
Brian Kemp during her un- ership to run. Her decision
successful bid for Georgia to remain on the sidelines
governor last year. Kemp leaves her as a prime po-
was secretary of state dur- tential vice presidential
ing their race, and Abrams pick and keeps the door
frequently accused him of open to a possible 2022 re-
using his position to sup- match against Kemp.q