Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recently launched a slew of investigations to look into several groups, including one that former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams founded for alleged election fraud of using ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters.
On Wednesday, Raffensperger’s office said the inspections involved America Votes, Vote Forward, and The New Georgia Project that Abrams founded, and Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock previously chaired.
For weeks, Raffensperger threatened anyone who planned to register individuals who were ineligible to vote in Georgia’s elections. He also discouraged people who wanted to travel to the state with the sole purpose of casting their votes.
In a Wednesday statement, Raffensperger said, “I have issued clear warnings several times to groups and individuals working to undermine the integrity of elections in Georgia through false and fraudulent registrations.” He noted that the security and legitimacy of Georgia’s elections were his priorities.
Raffensperge also revealed on Wednesday that his office found substantial evidence that the listed groups attempted election fraud. He said they would be thoroughly investigating the cases and immediately take necessary actions.
Earlier this week, the Georgia Secretary of State said America Votes was sending absentee ballot applications to people’s homes that they have not lived in since 1994. He added that Vote Forward sought to register a dead voter from Alabama to cast her vote in Georgia. Raffensperger said The New Georgia Project sent voter registration applications to New York City.
Raffensperger said that Operation New Voter Registration Georgia was telling college students to change their residency to Georgia, cast in their votes, and change it back afterward. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office employed 23 investigators to look into 250 open investigations of “credible claims of illegal voting” and election fraud.
In the Georgia Code, an individual could be jailed between one to ten years and fined up to $100,000 if they commit false registration since it is considered a felony.
On Wednesday, Raffensperger’s office described how the Abrams-Warnock associated group worked together with The New Georgia Project to cast votes from people who were either out of the state or deceased, Fox News reported.
Raffensperger’s office detailed multiple instances of how the group attempted to conduct election fraud across the state. He noted another attempt where Operation New Voter Registration GA told Emory students to falsely register so they could cast their votes during the January 5 runoffs.
Currently, there are 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats seated in the Senate, forcing Democrats to either win the Georgia runoffs or risk losing majority power to Republicans. If the Democratic party does find itself in a 50-50 position, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaker, essentially giving her party the advantage.
In Georgia, a runoff is required if no candidate garners 50% of the vote, and GOP Senator David Perdue only had 49.75%, narrowly missing the threshold. On the other hand, Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff was only down by about 87,000 votes.
Appointed Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler got nearly 26% of the total vote count in the special 20-candidate special election. The win gave her the final two years of GOP Senator Johnny Isakson’s term. In the first round of the election, Democratic candidate Warnock got nearly 33% of the votes.
