Georgia GOP’s Burt Jones presses Brad Raffensperger on 2020 ballot issue

Jones presses Raffensperger at ethics meeting

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, attacked primary rival Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the 2020 election during a Thursday meeting of the Georgia Senate Ethics Committee, according to the Associated Press.

The meeting centered on Jones’ criticism of Raffensperger’s response to a U.S. Department of Justice request for detailed voter data, and it also revisited a Fulton County ballot-related claim that spread in right-wing media.

Dispute over DOJ voter-data request

State senators on Thursday slammed Raffensperger for not complying with a DOJ request for voter information that includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Raffensperger has said providing that information would violate state law and infringe on Georgians’ privacy, and he did not attend the Ethics Committee meeting, citing active litigation, the AP reported. Georgia is among 23 states the Justice Department has sued to obtain the data.

Jones’ renewed push on Fulton County

At the meeting, Jones emphasized what the AP described as an incorrect claim that there were 315,000 wrongly certified Fulton County ballots from 2020 when he demanded Raffensperger appear before the ethics panel.

The AP reported that Jones’ focus appeared aimed at galvanizing his right-wing supporters. The story said Jones is a close ally of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him.

During the meeting and in announcing the Ethics Committee session, Jones said Fulton County admitted that “315,000 ballots were not properly signed by poll workers.” The AP said ballots in Georgia are never signed and that it was tabulator tapes from vote-counting scanners that poll workers failed to sign during early in-person voting in 2020. Ann Brumbaugh, an attorney for Fulton County, acknowledged at a State Election Board meeting last month that those tabulator tapes were not signed.

Brumbaugh also said Fulton County has new leadership overseeing elections and implemented new training and procedures for checking tabulator tapes, the AP reported.

Raffensperger: clerical error; no result change

Raffensperger called the issue a “clerical error,” and Gowri Ramachandran, director of elections and security for the Brennan Center, agreed, saying signing tabulation tapes is not how votes get counted and the error does not invalidate election results, according to the AP.

A spokesperson for Raffensperger said there is nothing in Georgia’s election code overturning results for not following a procedural rule that would invalidate every early vote cast in the state’s largest county.

In contrast, Jones said in the meeting that he would not allow Raffensperger to escape accountability by downplaying the failure as a mere “clerical error.” Jones also said Raffensperger’s office needs oversight, according to the AP.

Raffensperger’s DOJ position and court motion

The AP reported that in a letter to the Ethics Committee’s chairman, Raffensperger’s office said it provided the DOJ with Georgia’s voter list and complied to the extent Georgia law allows.

The letter also warned that if Georgia law were changed to weaken legal protections for voters’ private information, “millions of Georgians” could become vulnerable to identity theft, and said that the Secretary of State’s office would not support such a change, the AP said.

The story added that Raffensperger’s office filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Wednesday.

Lawmaker argument for sharing data; Raffensperger absence criticized

At the meeting, Republican state Sen. Randy Roberston, who filed the resolution, argued that Raffensperger could legally share the information, the AP reported.

“He continuously fails to show up and answer the questions and that is the absolute truth,” Roberston said, according to the report.

Push to move on from 2020; competing views inside GOP

Some Republicans and party figures said the focus on 2020 may not connect with a broad share of voters. Ricky Hess, chair of north Georgia’s Paulding County Republicans, said in a text that voters care about election transparency but are “ready to move on from relitigating 2020” and are more worried about affordability, education and public safety.

“Candidates who make 2020 the centerpiece risk sounding stuck,” Hess wrote. “Candidates who talk about practical steps that build confidence and then focus on today’s issues will connect with more people,” the AP reported.

Political context also shaped how observers viewed Jones’ strategy. Georgia State University political science professor Dr. Jennifer McCoy said it is not surprising Jones wants to keep 2020 on voters’ radar because Trump often laments the election with a focus on Fulton County, where Trump was indicted over efforts to overturn the results.

McCoy said Jones would still have to appeal to a broad swath of voters in the general election, the AP reported.

Security remains a primary concern, activists differ

Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon said election security is a key concern among Republican primary voters and that candidates will continue to talk about it.

Meanwhile, Jason Shepherd, a Republican in Georgia who said he resigned from party office over disagreements with Trump supporters, told the AP he was surprised a “bureaucratic error” is galvanizing the party’s MAGA wing as much as it is. He said Jones has Trump’s endorsement and support from election skeptics, but that most voters trust Georgia’s elections are secure.

Conservative activist Garland Favorito, who is described by the AP as known for espousing conspiracy theories and challenging the state’s 2020 results, said Fulton County’s error is one example of what he describes as Raffensperger’s lack of transparency.