MAGA Hails 'Big Victory' in Georgia Election Challenge

Donald Trump-supporting Republicans have welcomed a Georgia court ruling that a campaign group's move to challenge the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters ahead of the state's 2021 Senate runoff elections didn't violate the Voting Rights Act.

Fair Fight, a group formed to combat "voter suppression, particularly of voters of color and young voters," brought the case against True the Vote after the non-profit supported legal cases suggesting 364,000 Georgia voters "appeared to be ineligible to vote due to change in residency."

In his ruling, Judge Steve Jones, of the U.S. district court for the northern district of Georgia, concluded Fair Fight had failed to show True the Vote's actions were illegal under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act which outlaws any bid to "intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate" voters.

However he did also criticize True the Vote, claiming the group was responsible for "facilitating a mass number of seemingly frivolous challenges" and that the list of voters challenged by the group "utterly lacked reliability."

While Jones' ruling only applies to the northern district of Georgia, it has national implications given the growing conflict over election integrity between Democrats and Republicans. Most notably former President Trump, who is also frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is continuing to claim the 2020 election was stolen from him despite this claim being repeatedly rejected in court and by independent legal experts.

Fair Fight launched its legal action against True the Vote in December 2020, after the latter group backed challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters before keynote runoff elections in January 2021, which saw Democrats secure both of the state's Senate seats. This gave President Joe Biden a wafer-thin majority in the chamber, thanks to Vice-President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote.

Reacting to the verdict on X, formerly Twitter, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene replied: "Big victory!"

Addressing True the Vote, Wendy Patterson, a self-styled supporter of Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement with over 128,000 X followers, commented: "I'm so happy for you. Now ask the courts for every single penny that you had to spend."

Tami Marler, another X commentator, added: "Doesn't this bode well for Trump? If it's apropos and legal for TTV [True the Vote] to question and verify voter rolls, is it not also proper for the president? Congrats, True The Vote! Thank you for fighting for America!"

In a statement responding to the ruling, True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht commented: "Today's ruling sends a clear message to those who would attempt to control the course of our nation through lawfare and intimidation. American citizens will not be silenced. This is an answer to the prayers of faithful patriots across America."

Speaking to Newsweek, Engelbrecht said: "This entire ordeal started because American voters want trustworthy elections, starting with accurate voter rolls. The state of Georgia only conducts its review of its voter rolls in the first six months of every odd year. That's outrageously insufficient.

"As a consequence, tens of thousands of voters are ineligible, yet still actively voting. Many states have similarly substandard processes. Citizens must engage, as we did and will continue to do, to bring improvements to electoral processes."

Following the decision, Fair Fight issued a statement noting that "while the Court declined to find the actions by TTV in 2021 amounted to unlawful intimidation" it had "included stark criticisms of the organization's process for challenging voters."

Newsweek has contacted both True the Vote and Fair Fight for further comment by email.

Trump is facing trial in separate cases over allegations be broke the law while attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election result both across the United States and in the state of Georgia specifically. He has pled not guilty to all counts and insists the allegations against him are politically motivated.

Update 1/4/24, 2:35 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht.