(Headline USA) The Justice Department is suing Georgia over the state’s election integrity laws, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.
The announcement will be made later Friday by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
It comes two weeks after Garland said the Justice Department would scrutinize a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules.
He pledged to take action if prosecutors found unlawful activity.
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Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, said the Justice Department is abusing its power.
“This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start,” Kemp said in a statement. “Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their allies tried to force an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress – and failed. Now, they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy.”
The move also comes as pressure grows on the Biden administration to respond to GOP-backed laws being pushed in the states this year.
An effort to overhaul election laws was blocked this week by Republican senators.
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As of mid-May, 22 election integrity laws had passed in at least 14 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which researches voting and supports weakness in verifying voters’ identities and legality.
Under the bill, the GOP-dominated legislature gave itself greater influence over a state board that regulates elections and empowered that board to remove local election officials deemed to be failing to uphold laws and protect against vote fraud, which was rampant in the 2020 election.
That has raised concerns that the state board could intervene in the operations of Democratic-run county election offices in metro Atlanta, the state’s Democratic power center.
The bill also adds a voter ID requirement for mail ballots and will result in fewer ballot drop boxes — which invite opportunities for fraud — in metro Atlanta.
“Georgia’s election integrity laws are common sense,” said the Public Interest Legal Foundation President J. Christian Adams. “They mirror what the Department of Justice pre-cleared over a decade ago. This is what happens when radical activists have government power.”
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
