Cobb Reporter

This week, only months ahead of November's general election, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams' 2018 "stolen election" lawsuit, which a defendant election official called "a political stunt," went to trial.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a Fox 5 news story That Abrams and her camp are pursuing the lawsuit to undermine the integrity of the state's elections.

Georgia Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams | twitter.com/staceyabrams

"Her 3-year 'stolen election' campaign has been nothing more than a political stunt to keep her in the national spotlight, and it's a disservice to Georgia voters," Raffensperger said in an emailed statement quoted in the news story.

Raffensperger apparently knows a thing or two about alleged election-based political stunts. A Republican, Raffensperger is known for the alleged pressure he endured when former President Donald Trump urged him to "find" enough votes to overturn Trump's 2016 defeat and support his own "big lie" narrative.

Abrams is a former Georgia state House minority leader whose previously run for governor in 2018 ended in her narrow loss to now Gov. Brian Kemp, who in 2018 was Secretary of State. Shortly after, Abrams announced she would sue over the state's alleged mishandling of the elections. The case, Fair Fight Action v Raffensperger, was filed shortly after Abrams' loss and names Raffensperger as the lead defendant. Trial got underway Monday, April 11, in U.S. District Court for Georgia's Northern District in Atlanta. Judge Steve Jones, appointed to the bench during the Obama administration, is presiding.

Raffensperger told WGAU earlier this week that he and other defendants expect to prevail in the case.

"It's a bench trial, but we will meet them, and we will beat them in a court of law, and as I said, we'll take this all the way to the United States Supreme Court," Raffensperger said in the radio station's news story published Tuesday, April 12.

The case's outcome, either way, isn't likely to have any impact on the upcoming election. Lengthy appeals aside, Jones and other federal judges generally shy away from last-minute election changes, given prior Supreme Court cases that ruled should not be altered "on the eve of an election."

As in 2018, Abrams' current campaign definitely is on the ropes. She is unopposed in the Democratic primary field is challened by incumbent Kemp and another Republican, former Georgia U.S. Sen. David Perdue. An Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll released earlier this month found that Abrams is set to lose again to Kemp by a 51 percent to a 44 percent margin. The poll also found that Abrams trails Perdue by 49 percent to 44 percent margin.

Earlier this year, the state legislature passed Republican-lead legislation that allows the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to initiate probes into election wrongdoing allegations.