Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
Republican Brian Kemp on Thursday resigned as secretary of state, saying he needs to start the work of transitioning to the state’s top office after earning a “clear and convincing victory” at the ballot box.
But Stacey Abrams is not conceding anything yet, hopeful that a trove of provisional ballots could be enough to swing the race into a runoff. Her campaign unveiled a litigation team poised to take the fight to the courts, and that an additional 25,632 Abrams votes will push this race into runoff territory.
Kemp’s office has said there are roughly 25,000 outstanding provisional and absentee ballots, but has not yet released a detailed account of where they exist. The secretary of state had long refused calls to resign or recuse himself, saying he has a constitutional obligation to fulfill his term.
NBC News reports:
A lawsuit filed by Georgia voters on Tuesday in a federal court in Atlanta accused Kemp of using “the official powers of his office to interfere in the election to benefit himself and his political party and disadvantage his opponents.” In a statement to NBC News on Tuesday night, Kemp spokeswoman Candice Brode called the litigation a “twelfth-hour stunt.”
The Republican candidate had won roughly 50.3 percent of the votes counted in the race as of Thursday morning, according to NBC News tallies. The figure is important because, if Kemp secures less than a majority of votes, the contest will go to a runoff.
.@BrianKempGA‘s self-coronation, using taxpayer resources, is a legally meaningless political stunt. Zero out of 159 counties have certified votes. Zero votes are officially reported until next week, and tens of thousands of votes have not been counted. #CantTrustKemp #gapol
— Georgia Democrat (@GeorgiaDemocrat) November 8, 2018