Stacey Abrams’ Voting Rights Group in Hot Water: Missing Millions and Voter Fraud Allegations

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Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is back in the spotlight again and it’s not looking good. The organization she founded ostensibly to promote voting rights is currently under scrutiny for alleged financial misuse and irregularities following a six-month investigation by Politico.

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Abrams, who created the New Georgia Project in 2014, has not been a member of its leadership since 2017. The organization was instrumental in registering new voters and helping Democrats win the Peach State’s two senator seats in 2020. Now, it appears there are some serious issues with the organization.

The New Georgia Project, a voting rights organization founded by the state’s Democratic star Stacey Abrams and overseen for more than two years by Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, is beset by allegations of financial misuse and irregularities, according to a six-month POLITICO investigation.

The organization, which played a key role in registering the new voters necessary to turn Georgia from a red state to a swing state with two Democratic senators, is conducting its own internal probe into its finances in response to the claims of irregularities, one of its two board chairs, Frank Wilson, said.

The move comes as the group’s tax filings indicate that its former executive director — who was hand-picked by Abrams in 2014 but fired last year without notice — owes the organization thousands of dollars in “non-work-related” reimbursements. The former director, Nsé Ufot, who left the group last year after heading it for eight years, denies owing money and calls the allegation “a f*cking lie.”

The issue is related to concerns over poor financial record-keeping, including untracked expenses that were prepaid to employees on Visa gift cards and unaccounted-for salary advances.

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The New Georgia Project is also dealing with other administrative issues including a state ethics investigation over potential violations of rules that limit direct political activity by nonprofits.

This is not the first time Abrams’ organization has faced scrutiny over financial matters related to its former director, Nsé Ufot. In 2021, the organization seemingly was missing $500,000.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, tax filings from 2021 show that certain sums of money were claimed to have gone to a secondary charity called the Black Male Initiative, but it never got there– according to the charity itself. Even more suspicious is the blood relation between New Georgia Project and Black Male Initiative:

The New Georgia Project filed its 2021 Form 990 financial disclosure in January, two months after the form was due to the IRS, and three months after the charity’s board chairman fired CEO Nse Ufot, Abrams’s hand-picked leader for the group. In the disclosure, the New Georgia Project reports a $533,846 consulting payment and a $67,500 grant to the Black Male Initiative, an obscure charity run in part by Ufot’s brother, Edima, a former New Georgia Project employee.

But the Black Male Initiative says it never received any such consulting payment. The group provided the Washington Free Beacon with its IRS financial disclosures, which show it collected $0 in consulting income and just $255,000 in contributions from all sources in 2021.

Even further, the organization has been implicated in potential voter fraud. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger launched investigations into improper voter registration activities conducted by the organization.

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Raffensperger alleges that the New Georgia Project sent voter registration applications to New York City, which could be a violation of state law.

“‘Voting in Georgia when you are not a resident of Georgia is a felony,’ said Raffensperger. ‘These third-party groups have a responsibility to not encourage illegal voting. If they do so, they will be held responsible.’ ”

The State Election Board has also looked into the New Georgia Project, referring several cases of election-law violations for criminal prosecution. It was alleged to have submitted over 1,000 voter registration applications after the deadline during the 2019 special election, which led to disenfranchisement concerns.

Politico’s investigation is the latest in a long line of issues surrounding the New Georgia Project. The entity was once lauded for its role in getting more people involved in the political process. However, these financial scandals are likely to threaten its legacy.

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