The State Election Board had decided to move forward with an investigation into potential voter registration fraud. The board voted unanimously at an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon to issue an updated subpoena in the case against The New Georgia Project, a non-profit voter registration group. While some have questioned Secretary of State Brian Kemp's motives, he said his office is just following up on complaints from counties around the state. "As an investigative body, this is our duty to look into those complaints and that's where this investigation has gone,” said Kemp. Under the new subpoena, the New Georgia Project will have until September 26th to hand over all its voter registration documents to the Secretary of State's Office. Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta), the founder of The New Georgia Project, called the initial accusations a "witch hunt." She and a group of supporters held a news conference at the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon, ahead of the scheduled meeting on the issue. Abrams said the organization had been working closely with officials at the Secretary of State's Office for months. But she explained that changed last week when The New Georgia Project announced it had registered almost 86 thousand new voters and the state hit the group with a subpoena.

"We have made it our point to be incredibly transparent, to be open and collaborative,” said Abrams. “We do not object to sharing information, but what we do object to is a witch hunt and a fishing expedition." Reverend Raphael Warnock of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church is one of the leaders of the voter registration group. He claims the state has failed to put more than 50 thousand of the group's newly registered voters on the rolls. "Mr. Secretary of State, stop this dog and pony show with all of the subpoenas, with all of the false accusations and the smear campaign and do your job,” Warnock said during the afternoon press conference. Warnock claimed some of those voters filled out applications as early as April and the state still hasn't issued them voter registration cards.

Tags: voting, Secretary of State, elections, politics, elections2014