The Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation this month ranked Georgia first on its election integrity scorecard, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger took credit.
DeKalb County Republican Party Chair Marci McCarthy said this week, however, that Raffensperger was out of line to make such a remark. McCarthy wrote on the DeKalb County GOP’s website that Raffensperger “unilaterally weakened Voter ID protections and controls” and “did not strengthen them.”
McCarthy elaborated Friday when she talked to The Georgia Star News.
“I was compelled to write what I did because I have heard from so many Georgians and even people from across the country who were so upset when they saw that accolade out there where he was claiming credit where it was not due,” McCarthy said.
“He had nothing to do with it. We have SB 202 because of him and his shortcomings and his lack of leadership.”
Representatives from The Heritage Foundation as well as Raffensperger’s office did not reply to requests for comment before Friday’s stated deadline.
Raffensperger, on Facebook, said he “led on implementing voter ID in Georgia, helping ensure Georgia’s elections are secure and reliable.”
McCarthy, in her column, disputed that.
“The numerous ‘irregularities’ that triggered our focus on election integrity were directly due to the failures of management and oversight under Secretary Raffensperger’s questionable leadership of the Office of the Secretary of State,” McCarthy wrote.
“In fact, several sections of SB-202 intend to correct multiple failures during Raffensperger’s tenure in office. If he contributed at all, it was his failures that highlighted the need for so many reforms.”
SB 202 requires voter ID on all absentee ballots, increased oversight of local election boards that fail to follow state election law, and secured drop boxes around the clock.
The November 2020 election, according to Governor Brian Kemp, saw a 350 percent increase in the use of absentee balloting, more than 1.3 million absentee ballots total compared to election day in 2018.
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.
Under Raffensperger’s leadership, one Georgia secretary of state official, Jordan Fuchs anonymously sourced a Washington Post story about Trump — a story that people now discredit.
The Post story cited Trump’s phone call late last year with Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson. During that call, Trump urged Watson to look for fraudulent mail-in ballots in Fulton County. The paper said Trump’s conduct and words — which the paper now admits it took out of context — constituted criminal behavior.
Writers at The Post, upon discovering new evidence, later corrected their story.
A group directly linked to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated nearly $5.6 million to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office last year. Raffensperger spent that money on the 2020 presidential election. That Zuckerberg-linked group, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), donated the money.
As Breitbart News reported, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $419 million to two non-profit groups that provided controversial private funding to state, county, and municipal governments for election administration in the 2020 presidential election. Also, $350 million of Zuckerberg’s money went to the Center for Technology and Civic Life, which spent at least $24 million in key Georgia counties. The Center for Election Innovation and Research received $69 million, which privately funded state-level operations through the secretary of state offices in 23 states, including $13 million in Pennsylvania, $11 million in Michigan, $5.6 million in Georgia, and $4 million in Arizona – four key battleground states that U.S. President Joe Biden narrowly won.
Raffensperger said in May that he expects to perform well within the Peach State as he seeks reelection.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marci McCarthy” by Marci McCarthy.Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
