U.S. House Seeks Documents About 'Unprecedented Challenges' With Georgia's Voting

A U.S. House committee has issued a sweeping call for documents from the governor and secretary of state to learn more about what it calls serious problems with voting in Georgia.

In a letter dated Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) asked Gov. Brian Kemp information related to voter roll purges, the so-called "exact match" policy and polling place closures from the beginning of 2017 to now.

Most of that time was while he was secretary of state.

The letter also calls for all documents related to accusations that the Democratic Party of Georgia tried to hack the state's voter registration system. A GPB/ProPublica investigation found the state quietly patched the security hole it denied existed and accused the Democratic party of trying to exploit.

A similar letter was sent to current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The announcement comes as the state Senate Ethics committee approved HB 316, an omnibus voting bill that would upgrade Georgia's voting machines to ballot-marking devices and tweak election laws.

Kemp was asked about the request at the end of an unrelated press conference Wednesday afternoon.

His take?

"They need to quit playing politics up there," Kemp said, urging Congress to focus on disaster recovery in Georgia and other parts of the South instead.

Cummings' introduction to the request cited numerous local and national news reports about voting in Georgia as part of the rationale for the request, and gives a deadline of March 20.