Georgia lieutenant governor revives 2020 election dispute in GOP primary race

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones attacked his Republican primary opponent Thursday, using disputed claims about a 2020 Fulton County election issue in connection with his refusal to comply with a federal voter-data request. State senators at an Ethics Committee meeting criticized Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for not providing detailed voter information that the U.S. Department of Justice has demanded, but Jones emphasized an incorrect claim that 315,000 ballots were wrongly certified.

The clash illustrates how Jones, a Trump ally, is leveraging 2020 election grievances in his primary campaign against Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, though some Georgia Republicans say voters are ready to move on from the disputed 2020 outcome.

What the Fulton County issue actually was

Jones has claimed that Fulton County admitted to 315,000 wrongly certified ballots in connection with the 2020 election. However, the actual issue is significantly narrower. Poll workers in Fulton County failed to sign the tabulator tapes — the paper records documenting vote counts from scanning machines used during early in-person voting in 2020 — according to Ann Brumbaugh, an attorney for the county.

Gowri Ramachandran, director of elections and security at the Brennan Center, agreed with Raffensperger’s characterization of the error. “Signing tabulation tapes is not how votes get counted, and the error doesn’t invalidate election results,” she said.

Raffensperger called the issue a “clerical error.” His office noted that Georgia’s election code does not provide for overturning votes based on a failure to follow that particular procedural rule. Fulton County has since implemented new leadership for elections and new training procedures for checking tabulator tapes.

The DOJ data demand and Raffensperger’s position

The Ethics Committee meeting centered on Raffensperger’s refusal to comply with a federal request for detailed voter information. The Justice Department has sued Georgia and 22 other states to obtain names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Raffensperger said providing that information would violate Georgia state law and infringe on Georgians’ privacy. “If you and your colleagues wish to weaken the legal protections for Georgia voters’ private information and make millions of Georgians vulnerable to identity theft, you can certainly change the law, but that is not something that the Secretary of State’s office would support,” his office said in a letter to the Ethics Committee’s chairman.

Republican state Sen. Randy Robertson, who filed the resolution directing the committee to address the issue, argued that Raffensperger could legally share the information. “He continuously fails to show up and answer the questions and that is the absolute truth,” Robertson said.

Campaign positioning and Trump alliance

Jones has Trump’s endorsement in the Republican primary and the support of election skeptics. In 2020, he was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who declared themselves electors despite President Joe Biden having won the state. He also backed a call for a special session to declare Trump the winner.

Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him. In a January 2021 phone call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to help “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, Jones’ other top rivals for the Republican nomination, spurned Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 results. Raffensperger is expected to pull ahead of Carr in the primary.

Some Republicans question the strategy

However, spotlighting the 2020 election has baffled some Republicans who say most Georgians have moved on.

Ricky Hess, chair of Paulding County Republicans, said 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.”

Jason Shepherd, a Republican who resigned from party office over disagreements with Trump supporters, said he was surprised that what he characterized as “a bureaucratic error” is galvanizing the party’s MAGA wing as much as it is. Shepherd said most voters trust that Georgia’s elections are secure.

“Republicans like Jones think that if they can win all the straw polls at the Republican Party barbecues, they’ll probably win the nomination, when typically speaking, it’s the opposite,” Shepherd said.

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