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Biden Pick For FEC Claimed Georgia Ballot Machines ‘Switched’ Votes From Abrams to Kemp in 2018

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


President Joe Biden’s most recent pick to serve on the Federal Elections Commission is a lawyer who once represented a nonprofit backed by failed 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in a lawsuit that made a number of unproven allegations of voter suppression.

The nominee, Dara Lindenbaum, also aligned herself with court documents claiming that voting machines “switched” votes from Abrams to the winner, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, during the election — a stunningly similar allegation made by members of former President Donald Trump’s legal team in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Fox News Digital reports:

The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a confirmation hearing for Lindenbaum, a lawyer with the Washington firm of Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock, to be a commissioner on the FEC. Days later, the Georgia trial for Fair Fight Action and Care in Action v. Raffensperger began in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. 

Lindenbaum’s name appears as the third signature on the original complaint in the lawsuit alleging voter suppression in the race that saw then-Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp defeat Abrams by 55,000 votes statewide in the governor’s race.

“One troubling problem — encountered by several voters — is that voting machines switched their votes from Leader Stacey Abrams to Secretary Kemp,” the 66-page complaint filed Nov. 27, 2018, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia claimed.

The suit identified two voters who alleged they voted for Abrams on the voting machine four times because the first three times the machine indicated a vote for Kemp. In one instance, only after the voter’s “fourth attempt was she able to cast a ballot for Leader Abrams.” The complaint also alleged that another voting had “kept pressing Abrams and, by the fourth time, the machine finally corrected.”

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“The plaintiffs narrowed the case in an amended complaint filed Dec. 3, 2020, to focus on allegations of poor training of poll workers and the data on voter registration lists. The amended complaint omitted the prior allegations about voting machines,” Fox News reported.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, said of Lindenbaum: “The U.S. Senate must reject this nominee.”

“The FEC is supposed to be a neutral body that instills confidence in our elections,” Carr told Fox News in an interview. “She has spent the last four years making fake claims of voter suppression and pushing conspiracy theories. This has been a four-year fundraising effort for Fair Fight Action assisted by Ms. Lindenbaum.”

The state AG has also written a letter to U.S. senators urging them to reject Lindenbaum’s nomination.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) queried the nominee about the Georgia ballot-switching complaint during a confirmation hearing April 6.

“Do you think criticizing an election as stolen or otherwise invalid undermines the public faith in the democratic process?” Cruz asked.

“These matters, the election security matters, are outside the purview of the Federal Election Commission, which is solely focused on campaign finance issues and not the issues of election administration machines,” Lindenbaum said in response.

That led Cruz to repeat his question as to whether such complaints undermine democratic processes.

“It can, I think it depends on the context involved,” Lindenbaum replied.

She went on to say that Kemp won in 2018 and that nine days after his victory Abrams acknowledged it. Cruz responded by saying the lawsuit Lindenbaum was involved with attempted to permanently enjoin the Georgia secretary of state and the state board of elections and declare Georgia’s election process unconstitutional.

“The complaint you filed argued that the machines in 2018 actually switched votes for Abrams to votes for Kemp. Is that correct?” Cruz asked.

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“The complaint, I believe, had those allegations in it,” Lindenbaum responded. “Those allegations were all based on affidavits and other stories from voters.” She went on to tell Cruz “that case is in very active litigation” and “I am very much limited in what I can say about it.”

Cruz, however, persisted in his line of questioning.

“As an officer of the court, you were willing to put your name on a legal pleading alleging that the machines used in Georgia in 2018 were switching votes illegally from one candidate to another. Is that correct?” Cruz asked.

“Yes,” Lindenbaum replied.

Carr noted: “This [Lindenbaum] appointment shows the hypocrisy of the left. When some Trump supporters claimed machines switched votes from Trump to Biden in 2020, Democrats went bananas. But Democrats made the same claims in 2018.”

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