Judge rules against Georgia elections chief in records case

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has rejected Georgia officials' arguments in an election-related lawsuit and ruled that information being sought by a journalist and an activist is subject to public disclosure.

Investigative journalist Greg Palast and civil rights activist Helen Butler are seeking lists that were produced as part of Georgia's involvement in a database designed to share voter registration data between participating states

The Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, created by the Kansas Secretary of State's office in 2005, was promoted as a way to compare voter registration lists to identify people registered in more than one state. The program's stated purpose was to clean voter records and prevent voter fraud, but it has been criticized for a high error rate and lax security.

Palast and Butler sued Georgia's then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp in October 2018 for original copies of the 2016 and 2017 lists provided to his office by Crosscheck. They argued that Crosscheck “has been determined to disproportionately impact voters of color.”

Kemp, a Republican, served as the state's top elections official when he narrowly beat Democrat Stacey Abrams in the 2018 governor's race. He was repeatedly accused of voter suppression by Abrams and her allies. He vehemently denied the allegations.

State lawyers argued that the secretary of state's office wasn't required to keep the records that Palast and Butler are seeking, and that the plaintiffs sought documents they knew the secretary of state's office didn't have. They argued the lawsuit should be dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross wrote in a Feb. 4 order that Palast and Butler “are entitled to access to the 2016 and 2017 Crosscheck lists.”

Palast and Butler had cited a provision of...