Controversial Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed on Tuesday that he will seek another term.
Raffensperger has been the focal point of criticism of Georgia’s election from both sides of the political aisle. He routinely ignored the widespread concerns over election security throughout the state.
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Ballot transfer forms from Fulton County reveal that 86 percent of the more than 59,000 absentee ballots analyzed from drop box locations, required to be “immediately transported” to the county registrar according to Emergency Rule of the State Election Board for Absentee Voting, took more than one hour to be transferred to election officials.
State Election Board Emergency Rule 183-1-14 relative to securing absentee ballot drop boxes, which went around state law, was adopted by the State Election Board at their July 1, 2020, meeting.
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Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Wednesday wrote a letter to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and asked that Carr investigate Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and whether Raffensperger abused his office during recent elections. Loeffler, in her letter, also said Raffensperger violated the state constitution to further his own political self-interests.
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Another Georgia Republican wants to replace current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. That candidate, T.J. Hudson, told The Georgia Star News this week that he resigned his position as a Treutlen County probate court judge so he could compete for Raffensperger’s job.
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On Tuesday the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI) failed to pose two important questions to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about the November 2020 presidential election and missing ballot transfer forms. AEI officials Tuesday afternoon livestreamed a question-and-answer session with Raffensperger about how to restore public trust in voting.
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Members of the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI) are scheduled to host a livestreamed question and answer session with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. AEI officials have scheduled the event for 3:30 p.m. Central on Tuesday on AEI’s website. People may submit their own questions to Raffensperger as they watch.
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Republican officials in two Georgia counties this week formally censured Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on the grounds that they betrayed former U.S. President Donald Trump last November. Conservative activist Debbie Dooley told The Georgia Star News Wednesday that the GOP pushback against those three Georgia officials has only just begun.
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A group directly linked to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated nearly $5.6 million to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office last year. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spent that money on the 2020 presidential election.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday announced that he had referred three counties for investigation after they bucked state law and failed to do their absentee ballot transfer forms from last November’s presidential election. Raffensperger, in a press release, identified those three counties as Coffee, Grady, and Taylor. The three counties account for only 0.37 percent of all absentee ballots cast in last year’s election, he said.
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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA-10) said recent mass shootings are “a symptom of a profound moral crisis in America – one that cannot be easily solved by simply passing law after law in Washington.”
“George Washington said that ‘religion and morality are indispensable supports’ of a prosperous nation. These two great pillars have been driven from public life, and until they are restored, we cannot remedy the brutal absence of compassion in our society that leads to mass shootings. We must renew our love and faith in both God and each other,” Hice told constituents in an emailed newsletter this week.
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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA-10) announced Monday that he wants to replace Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and will run for Raffensperger’s seat. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, in a written statement, promptly endorsed Hice’s candidacy.
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Georgia legislators filed a bill this week that, among other things, would limit the ability of the State Election Board and the secretary of state to enter into certain consent agreements. “The State Election Board, the members thereof, the Secretary of State, and any of their attorneys or staff shall not have any authority to enter into any consent agreement with any other person that limits, alters, or interprets any provision of this chapter without obtaining the approval of the General Assembly through a joint resolution,” according to the language of the bill.
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A newly-elected U.S. Senator from Georgia is under investigation for his ties to a nonprofit that may have committed voter fraud, according to the state’s election officials.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is a respondent in a potential case against The New Georgia Project, which has been referred to prosecutors according to several reports.
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A group of 15 secretaries of state this week issued their support for the “Keep Nine Amendment” recently introduced in Congress, marking the latest victory for the organization seeking to preserve the independence of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Keep Nine Amendment said in a statement that the 15 sent the letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and House Minority Leader of the House Kevin McCarthy.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he entered into the controversial Compromise Settlement Agreement and Release with Stacey Abrams because members of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office Chris Carr recommended he do so. In a letter dated January 6, Raffensperger told former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) that the agreement strengthened Georgia’s signature verification system.
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Two Georgia state legislators who lost their chairmanships after they questioned the results of the last presidential election can’t say if their colleagues have enough willpower to fix the state’s alleged election integrity problems. State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) and State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) talked to The Georgia Star News Monday. Both men said they’ve noticed that some of the same state leaders who stifled their efforts to have a special session to address voter irregularities late last year have now proposed their own reforms.
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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) didn’t cite Georgia by name, but he said Sunday that officials in different states may have enabled voting irregularities to occur last year. And if that did happen then Paul said he wants to help repair the damage.
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Republican officials at the Georgia State Capital want to require photo ID for absentee ballots in the state. This, according to a new report on the Atlanta-based WABE. The station is affiliated with National Public Radio.
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U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09) said this week that election season is over in Georgia and government officials must now secure the integrity of how people vote. Clyde submitted a column to The Washington Examiner and said state-level officials, during this year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly, are prioritizing the issue of voter integrity. He also seemed to criticize Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for how he managed last year’s elections.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called President Trump’s remarks a “threat” during a 60 Minutes interview aired Monday. The interview also included previous Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling, currently the Secretary of State’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Raffensperger was referring to a secretly-recorded, leaked call in which the President questioned the merits of Georgia’s elections systems, voter fraud allegations, and election irregularities. At several points, Trump criticized Raffensperger for stating that there wasn’t any evidence of criminality within the 2020 general election. The President also likened Raffensperger’s unwillingness to assign credibility to election fraud claims with criminal activity.
Raffensperger was referring to a secretly-recorded, leaked call in which the President questioned the merits of Georgia’s elections systems, voter fraud allegations, and election irregularities. At several points, Trump criticized Raffensperger for stating that there wasn’t any evidence of criminality within the 2020 general election. The President also likened Raffensperger’s unwillingness to assign credibility to election fraud claims with criminal activity.
CNN found a new darling in Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who bashed Republicans and President Donald J. Trump in an interview with the network Thursday.
“For two long months, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger endured, standing in the firing line of Trump’s baseless attacks,” CNN’s Amara Walker said in a television interview featuring Raffensperger.
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Republican incumbent Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, Jr., narrowly secured re-election in the runoff race to represent District 4 in the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC). McDonald secured over 50 percent of the vote totals, while his Democratic opponent, Daniel Blackman, trailed McDonald by 1 point.
The win marked McDonald’s fourth time being elected to the position. He has served GPSC for 16 years.
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Twitter paired up with far-left news outlet Reuters Tuesday to prepare the public for a drawn-out runoff election process in Georgia.
“Why the winners in Georgia runoffs might not be known for days,” a Twitter “moment” said.
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A Spalding County voter told The Georgia Star News early Tuesday that voting machines broke at a Griffin-area polling place, and instead of receiving paper ballots, workers sent the voters waiting in line away.
In an interview with The Star News, the voter stated that she’d arrived at her polling place at Union Baptist church early because she works several jobs and wanted to ensure she could cast her vote.
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A private call between President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was leaked by The Washington Post on Sunday afternoon. The call reportedly took place almost exactly a day prior to the time that the audio was leaked.
Others on the call included White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s attorneys Cleta Mitchell and Kurt Hilbert, Georgia’s Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany, and Georgia’s Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs.
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Only 9 out of 35 Republican state senators signed a petition to call a special session determining Georgia’s 16 electors and addressing election fraud. In order for the petition to go through, at least 29 senators needed to sign onto it.
The state senators who signed the petition were: Brandon Beach (R-GA-Alpharetta), Burt Jones (R-Jackson), Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), William Ligon (R-Brunswick), Matt Brass (R-Newnan), Tyler Harper (R-Ocilla), Marty Harbin (R-Tyrone), Bruce Thompson (R-White), and Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega).
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is not responding to questions about major flaws in his office’s “audit” of Cobb County absentee ballot envelope signatures counted in the November 3 presidential election, the results of which were announced in a press release last week.
Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, have certified that former Vice President Joe Biden secured a razor thin margin of victory of 11,779 votes in Georgia in the November 3 election, despite numerous lawsuits alleging significant irregularities in that election.
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Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will visit Georgia to support the Senate election runoff candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, next week.
Biden and Harris will arrive in the days preceding the runoff elections, according to a press release from their team. Harris will precede Biden by a day, showing up to Savannah on Sunday. Biden will arrive on Monday in Atlanta.
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Georgia State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held another hearing on election fraud on Wednesday. Chairman William Ligon (R-GA-White Oak) oversaw the hearing.
Witnesses testified to multiple variants of election integrity issues, including the voting machines, voting systems, poll workers and adjudicators, and even the printed QR ballots themselves. A consistent message throughout the testimonies reflected a lack of helpfulness from the secretary of state’s office.
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Dick Morris told Newsmax TV that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger created “serious problems” in the November election for several reasons.
Morris appeared on the Monday episode of “American Agenda,”according to a story by Newsmax.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called on lawmakers Wednesday to propose legislation to revamp the state’s absentee ballot voting process.
During an election investigation hearing Wednesday, Raffensperger asked the House Governmental Affairs Committee to eliminate signature matching and no-excuse absentee voting.
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Fulton County election officials informed two whistleblowers that they were no longer eligible to work in the runoff election. Bridget Thorne and Susan Voyles each received a letter notifying them of their dismissal last week following their testimonies to the General Assembly.
Both women were dismissed suddenly and without notice, after having served without issue in previous elections for years.
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True the Vote, a nonpartisan voters’ rights and election integrity organization, submitted over 364,000 elector challenges for all 159 counties. Georgia law allows a voter to challenge the eligibility of other voters within the same county, so long as probable cause exists.
In a press release, True the Vote explained that the challenge preemptively prevents illegal votes, as opposed to a reactive challenge to ballots cast. They added that once a ballot is cast, it is near-impossible to match a ballot to its voter.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Friday condemned the firing of poll managers and whistle blowers Suzi Voyles and Bridget Thorne by Fulton County elections officials.
Raffensperger also called on Fulton County to rehire them to work future elections.
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Georgia State Representative Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) received an absentee ballot after submitting an application using a different signature than on his photo ID. The representative submitted his application on November 28 to vote in the runoff election. He received a ballot without any issues on December 15.
Dolezal tweeted a comparison picture between the non-matching signatures on his photo ID and his absentee ballot application.
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Following a signature match audit for absentee ballots in Cobb County, Georgia will conduct a statewide audit. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the decision on Monday.
According to the secretary of state’s office, the audit will review “specific allegations” relating to inadequate signature matching on absentee ballot applications ahead of June’s primary elections. That audit will compare a sample of absentee ballot envelopes to signatures on file.
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As of the first day of early voting for the runoff election, Georgians haven’t received an updated voter registration list.
The Republican Party of Georgia issued a press release posing seven questions about the list pertaining to the upcoming runoff election.
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Coffee County submitted a letter to the Georgia House Governmental Affairs Committee with evidence claiming that the Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) machines provided inconsistent results in their county. Like the rest of Georgia and 28 other states, the county used Dominion’s Democracy Suite 5.5.
The Georgia Star News was informed that the secretary of state’s office stands by the information issued in its press release last week stating that Coffee County workers likely double-scanned batches of ballots.
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Republican Georgia lawmakers increased their push for election changes Friday ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections for U.S. Senate.
House Majority Leader Jon Burns (R-Newington) sent a second letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Friday asking him to respond to an initial letter calling for two specific changes to the election process.
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Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger declined to testify before the Georgia House of Representatives about potential fraud in the 2020 general election on Thursday. The House Governmental Affairs Committee oversaw the hearing.
Many of the claims presented during the hearing resembled those offered during the State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing last week. The secretary of state’s office reportedly declined to attend that hearing as well.
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The Georgia House of Representatives held a hearing on Thursday to discuss claims of election fraud and voting irregularities. Career IT professional and nonpartisan voting integrity organization VOTERGA Co-Founder Garland Favorito testified before the House – he’d previously been called to testify before the Georgia Senate on his findings.
Favorito explained that he’d been challenging Georgia’s electronic voting systems since 2002 with the implementation of Diebold DRE system. For 17 years, Favorito alleged that the system was “not verifiable, auditable, and [not] recount capable,” and was ignored by the Secretary of State’s office and Georgia Supreme Court. Then, in 2019, Favorito explained that the U.S. District Court agreed that the Diebold systems were unconstitutional. That decision led to the Secretary of State’s office to purchase the Democracy Suite 5.5 BMD system from Dominion Voting Systems.
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Coffee County election officials refused to certify the electronic recount earlier this week, citing irreconcilable anomalies with the voting machine results in a letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
In the letter, the Coffee County Board of Elections and Registration stated that the electronic recount was unable to repeat duplicate, credible results.
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The Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Georgia became public yesterday, alleging nearly 453,000 fraudulent votes were cast.
The lawsuit claimed that thousands of voters and the named defendants broke Georgia’s Election Code. It quoted Georgia Supreme Court precedent indicating that plaintiffs only had to show enough irregular ballots to cast doubt on the election results – not how voters would’ve voted normally.
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The Georgia legislature may not call a special session – but the decision wouldn’t be for a lack of doubt in election integrity.
In an interview with The Georgia Star News, State Representative Colton Moore (R-Trenton) shared that legislators are gun-shy about calling a special session to address the general and runoff elections.
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The Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party filed a lawsuit to ensure Georgia election law is properly followed for the January 5 runoff election.
The lawsuit demands that poll watchers be allowed to do their jobs as permitted under Georgia law, and safeguards in the law for ballot “drop boxes” are upheld, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Republican National Committee.
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Four Georgia lawmakers – State Senators Brandon Beach (R-Cherokee), Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), William Ligon (R-Brunswick), and Burt Jones (R-Jackson) (pictured above, left to right) – bucked their leadership Monday to launch a petition to force a special session of the Georgia General Assembly. They need 29 signatures to force it. Republicans hold a 34-21 seat majority. “As the petition makes clear, testimonial and other evidence given before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee demonstrated a systemic failure to observe Georgia election laws. Underage individuals and convicted felons registered and were allowed to vote,” stated the senators in a press release. “People voted who were not listed in the state’s records as having been registered to vote. Voters who moved to a different county more than 30 days prior to the election and failed to re-register were allowed to cast votes. Voters registered using bogus addresses such as UPS facilities and other stores, yet their votes were counted. Ballots of individuals who were deceased prior to Election Day counted. Over and over again, ballots were counted outside the view of poll watchers or designated monitors, defying the law. Even the law itself was modified by an unconstitutional agreement which weakened signature…
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Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s General Counsel Ryan Germany confirmed during the Georgia State Senate hearing that the state’s voting machines received a system update before the election. Germany shared that the updates had occurred weeks prior to Election Day.
Vice Chairman, Senator Marty Harbin (R-GA-Tyrone) asked Germany whether Dominion’s voting machines were updated.
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Wednesday evening, Fulton County elections officials conducted a rescan of over 12,000 ballots due to “unexplained technical problems.”
Republican Party of Georgia Chairman David Shafer tweeted the news as soon as he was informed by one of the county’s Republican commissioners, Liz Hausmann.
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Georgia’s incoming U.S. Congress members sent a letter asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to re-verify the absentee ballot signatures.
Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) tweeted the letter, calling on Raffensperger to do more to secure elections.
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A Gwinnett County, Georgia elections official confirmed that Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) representatives use USB drives to upload vote count data to laptops for external processing. The USB drives are also known as “memory sticks,” “thumb drives,” or “flash drives.” It is standard protocol for Dominion, as well as for most electronic voting systems.
The county official issued the statement in an emailed response to a viral video claiming that a Dominion representative manipulated vote data. In the film, a Dominion technician appears to load vote count data from county monitors onto a USB. Then, he proceeded to plug the USB into a separate laptop.
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