Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger this week said state officials must do more to protect the integrity of the state’s elections, and, toward that end, he said it’s time for the state to provide additional security.
Raffensperger called for greater vigilance of elections in a statement that his office published Monday. He also said it was essential for state officials to take extra steps to protect voters and poll workers. Raffensperger said the state can accomplish this by dispatching state law enforcement resources at polling places, early voting locations, and county election offices where officials handle absentee ballots.
The Georgia Star News contacted Raffensperger’s office on Tuesday and asked if his proposal was influenced by one from former U.S. Senator and current Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue.
Perdue last month proposed creating what he called an Election Law Enforcement Division that would investigate alleged violations of the state’s election laws. Perdue, in a statement, said Election Law Enforcement Division officers would have the authority to make arrests. Perdue spokeswoman Jenni Sweat said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) would oversee this Election Law Enforcement Division.
Members of Raffensperger’s communications team, however, did not answer our question before Tuesday’s stated press time.
The Star News also tried to ask members of Raffensperger’s staff about his past statements saying that Georgia’s 2020 presidential election was legitimate. This, even though Raffensperger’s statement on Monday seemed to suggest that the integrity of Georgia’s election process is fragile and fraught with problems.
Several members of the Georgia General Assembly have said they were unaware of the state’s consent agreement with Democrat Stacey Abrams prior to last year’s election.
Author Mollie Hemingway said in her new book, Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, that Raffensperger’s actions enabled absentee voting known to favor Democrats last year. Some of those electoral changes involved absentee or mail-in ballots, which Georgia’s General Assembly did not approve.
State legislators are the only entity the state’s constitution recognizes when it comes to authority over elections.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Georgia Sec of State Brad Raffensperger” by Brad Raffensperger.
