Staff members for Georgia’s attorney general and secretary of state this week declined to respond to Vernon Jones’ call for the feds – and not state officials – to investigate new claims of ballot harvesting in 2020.
Staff for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger declined The Georgia Star News’ requests for comment.
Georgia law assigns members of the state Election Board to investigate claims of ballot harvesting.
Jones, a Republican declared his candidacy for governor last year.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Georgia Tuesday. Jones, in an emailed press release, asked Biden to direct U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate violations of the federal Voting Rights Act. Former President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965. That law gives federal officials the power to examine and approve voting practices and procedures.
Raffensperger, on Tuesday, called for a nationwide ban on ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting permits private individuals to collect other voters’ ballots and then submit those ballots to various polling stations.
Jones, last week, called on the federal government – and not State Attorney General Chris Carr – to investigate the ballot harvesting claims.
“The reason I am asking the federal government to investigate this is because it is clear and it is obvious that the attorney general recently endorsed the governor of this state, Brian Kemp, and embraced his position and denial of election fraud,” Jones said at a press conference last week at the state capitol.
“And this is going to be the very person who will investigate whether or not something took place. He [Carr] compromised his independence by endorsing the governor. I would like to see a federal investigation to examine what happened.”
Georgia authorities are investigating an allegation of systematic ballot harvesting during the state’s 2020 general election and subsequent U.S. Senate runoff, according to Just the News. Raffensperger told the publication that state government officials may issue subpoenas in the case to secure evidence.
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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].
