Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) in an interview published Sunday defended the difference between her allegations of voter suppression in Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election and President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
Abrams told The New York Times that Trump “offers no empirical evidence” when he makes claims of voter fraud, while she does make her claims based on evidence.
{mosads}”Trump is alleging voter fraud, which suggests that people were trying to vote more than once. Trump offers no empirical evidence to meet his claims. I make my claims based on empirical evidence, on a demonstrated pattern of behavior that began with the fact that the person I was dealing with was running the election,” said Abrams, who narrowly lost last year to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R).
“If you look at my immediate reaction after the election, I refused to conceded,” she continued. “It was largely because I could not prove what had happened, but I knew from the calls that we got that something happened.”
Kemp, who was Georgia’s secretary of state before being elected governor, was criticized ahead of the election for not resigning as secretary of state, which allowed him to oversee the election.
Abrams, Democrats and other groups, including the NAACP, alleged that Kemp engaged in voter suppression tactics. Prior to the election, reports emerged that voter registration applications of many black voters were put on hold.
Additionally, on the day of Georgia’s election, several polling locations in Georgia faced problems as voters were forced to wait in line for hours, with some voting machines breaking down.
Abrams said in the interview with the Times published Sunday that she acknowledges Kemp “secured a sufficient number of votes under our existing system to become the governor” but added that she does “not concede that the process was proper, nor do I condone that process.”