Brad Raffensperger, Georgia secretary of state, to probe election

Democrat Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action on Wednesday was preparing a lawsuit to force changes to Georgia’s electoral system in response to the state’s chaotic primary this week.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger already opened investigations into Tuesday’s primary elections in two Atlanta-area counties to determine what caused the long lines and shortages of ballots, to hopefully avoiding a repeat in November.

Ms. Abrams, whose failed Georgia gubernatorial bid in 2018 catapulted her to political stardom and consideration to be the Democratic vice-presidential pick, won’t wait for the results of the investigation.

“This is a complete meltdown and failure of the secretary of state’s office,” Ms. Abrams said on “CBS This Morning.”

She later tweeted that voter suppression takes on many forms and “Georgia excels in too many of them.”

Fair Fight Action, which Ms. Abrams founded to fight the type of voter suppression she blamed for her loss in the race for governor, announced the lawsuit on Twitter and vowed to move quickly.

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SEE ALSO: Stacey Abrams’ group pursuing legal action after Tuesday’s Georgia primary

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The snafus in Georgia’s primary fueled Democrats’ charges of rigged elections and calls for expanded mail-in voting in 2020.

“We saw it in Wisconsin back in April, and we saw it again yesterday in Georgia,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, on Twitter. “Republicans will stop at nothing to suppress the right to vote—especially for Black communities and communities of color. This is not democracy.”

Earlier this week, Fair Fight said it was partnering with liberal groups Priorities USA and American Bridge to form a “Voter Suppression Watch” team.

It will compete with rival election watchdogs on the right, such as the Honest Elections Project, which this week sued Michigan over allegedly inaccurate voter rolls.

“I sincerely hoped to avoid litigation and work collaboratively with the state in that endeavor; unfortunately, Michigan has chosen a different path,” said Jason Snead, Honest Elections Project executive director. “Tolerating inflated and poorly maintained voter rolls is never acceptable, particularly in an election year that will rely on those records to send more mail ballots than ever before.”

The battle over vote-by-mail and charges of suppression or fraud are expected to heat up as the November election draws closer.

President Trump has blasted no-excuse mail-in voting for being an invitation to election fraud, while Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom extoll it as an expansion of voting rights.

University of Chicago political scientist Anthony Fowler said that vote-by-mail presents new risks to election security and election officials should act now to detect and mitigate fraud while educating the public about their efforts.

“In theory, it could be easier for someone to fraudulently vote on behalf of someone else or for someone to tamper with the ballots in a vote-by-mail system,” he wrote on the university’s website. “Furthermore, one might be more concerned about coercion or vote-buying with mail ballots. … In practice, however, voter fraud is very rare, and the risk of widespread fraud is probably very minimal, even with all-mail elections.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said the issues in Georgia ought to motivate its followers to be vigilant now to prevent similar problems on Election Day in November.

“Forcing voters to wait in line for hours in the midst of a pandemic is voter suppression and a threat to our lives,” the ACLU tweeted. “Let Georgia be a warning: We need to get our act together for the remaining primaries and November’s election.”