Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger says media ‘showed their bias’ on state voting law, defends record

Exclusive – Georgia Secretary of Condition Brad Raffensperger, R., claimed the national media “showed their bias” very last year in the protection of the state’s election reforms, defending his record and the state’s election protection and integrity as he faces a main challenger endorsed by former President Trump.

Maybe the most nicely-identified secretary of point out in the U.S. owing to Georgia’s prominence in elections drama above the earlier four decades, Raffensperger explained to Fox News Electronic he’s normally “adopted the regulation and followed the Constitution” in his placement. Lambasted by equally Trump and, indirectly, President Biden for the state’s voting procedures, he holds a exceptional place in American politics. 

“The nationwide media, by and massive, showed their bias, and it was all leaning on the remaining facet of the aisle,” he claimed. “If anyone said one thing, they under no circumstances actuality-checked it, reported what is the real truth of the matter about this? It can be genuine straightforward. Just go through the bill. It truly is considerably less than 100 internet pages. You could have read through that monthly bill. It is really not like D.C. exactly where you generate 1,000-page bills… Ours is significantly less than 100. You are likely to see right there, place blank, 17 times of early voting.” 

“We have accessibility, but we have protection,” he added. “We’ve had photograph I.D. for in-man or woman voting. We now have photo ID for absentee voting. That shores up security, shores up self-confidence. And which is a good factor.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks all through a presser Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Even though some much more extreme accusations like Biden’s assert that functioning people wouldn’t be ready to vote or the law was akin to “Jim Crow” gained some media criticism, it was largely the subject matter of media and activist furor that in the end led to Big League Baseball transferring the 2021 All-Star Video game out of Atlanta.

Signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, R., previous March, Georgia’s new regulation demanded voter ID for absentee voting relatively than relying on signature matching for verification limited ballot drop containers to one for each county or a person for each 100,000 voters shortened the absentee ballot application interval to 67 days and expanded early voting days and standardized early voting hrs to a minimum amount of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a greatest of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The laws barred outside the house groups from passing out food stuff and h2o to individuals in line, handed a lot more election authority to the GOP-managed condition legislature and shortened runoffs from 9 months to four.

The legislation induced a volcanic eruption in the media previous yr, which was framed on outlets like CNN and MSNBC as creating it “more challenging” to vote and an exertion at “voter suppression.” Hosts like Don Lemon and Nicolle Wallace repeated the “Jim Crow” language utilised by President Biden and quite a few Democrats and praised firms like Delta and Coca-Cola that spoke out from it less than stress from liberal activists. Kemp and Raffensperger took criticism that they spearheaded the legislation because of tension from Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in Georgia.

Raffensperger mentioned “two massive lies” price Atlanta the All-Star Activity: the notion that there were decreased early voting times, and the oft-repeated line that they’d built it unlawful to hand out h2o in line.

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“We experienced a 150-foot [zone] of no politicking, no electioneering,” he mentioned. “Candidates were coming in that 150-foot zone, not with their names, but with their result in. And then they had been offering persons drinking water, but really declaring, ‘Can I depend on your vote?'”

Ahead of that election regulation dust-up, though, Raffensperger arrived beneath fire from Trump and vital allies just after Trump narrowly lost Georgia in the 2020 race. Trump famously pressed Raffensperger in a leaked cellular phone call to “uncover” the amount of votes essential to place the point out in his column, asserting that he had been cheated out of it by quite a few types of voter fraud. Raffensperger pushed back again that there was no proof of this sort of popular fraud and earned himself a major challenger in the offing, with Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., successful Trump’s endorsement by continuing to push claims that irregularities handed the point out to Democrats.

“Jody Hice has been functioning all-around the state of Ga for 18 months now lying, and level by point, anything he claims is a lie,” Raffensperger reported. “It can be under no circumstances supported by the information. And so he states, perfectly, voters you should not have self confidence in the process. It is really because you’ve got been lying, Jody Hice, since you reported we did not have signature match in 2020. Our signature match rejection rate in 2020 was 11% higher for signature matching issues… in 2020 than it was in 2018. We have obtained the info on our aspect.” 

FILE – In this Oct. 7, 2018, file picture, ground crews get ready the field at Solar Have faith in Park, now recognized as Truist Park, forward of Sport 3 of MLB baseball’s National League Division Series among the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Atlanta. Truist Park misplaced the 2021 All-Star Activity on Friday, April 2, 2021, when Major League Baseball determined to move the sport in other places around the league’s objection to Georgia’s sweeping new election law that critics say restrits voting legal rights. (AP Photograph/John Amis, File)

In a statement to Fox News Electronic, Hice shot again that “this is particularly why individuals think that Brad Raffensperger is a Democrat.”

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“When he is backed into a corner and referred to as out on the mess he created, he resorts to identify-contacting and generating fake accusations,” Hice explained. “The truth of the matter is this: Brad Raffensperger is 100% liable for the disaster that was the 2020 election and for the entire absence of integrity in Georgia’s elections. He unsuccessful to uphold the responsibilities of his office and in convert unsuccessful the people today of Ga. If he experienced done his occupation, I wouldn’t be managing in opposition to him.”

The key is May perhaps 24, and the two are probably headed to a runoff with neither candidate possible to clear the 50-percent barrier to avoid 1. 

Trump lost Ga, Raffensperger explained, simply because of his marketing campaign, noting that 28,000 Georgians didn’t vote for president that 12 months in the common election but voted straight Republican down-ticket. 

He ran off a record of reforms he stated experienced bolstered election integrity in Ga, declaring the point out had correct voter rolls, verifiable paper ballots, cross-checked registrations with other states, completed a 100% citizenship audit, pushed for neighborhood prosecutions of voter fraud, investigated lawful ballot-harvesting – he got subpoena electricity this 7 days to come across proof on the latest accusations on that entrance – and fought back on lawsuits hard the Georgia voting law that established the media firestorm past calendar year. He also claimed he was doing the job to hold Fulton County, the state’s most significant, accountable for its lengthy-standing election issues.

Of class, Raffensperger has observed politicians from both sides of the aisle issue the integrity of election outcomes in his point out, with Democrat Stacey Abrams famously not formally conceding her reduction to Kemp in 2018 in the gubernatorial race. She’s often said considering that that she genuinely “received” the contest and that “they stole it,” whilst compared with Trump, she’s become a national media darling.

“She’s the just one that truly begun this complete point,” Raffensperger reported of the craze of additional politicians questioning final results. “In truth, she was up in Virginia campaigning for the Democrat governor candidate [Terry McAulifffe] back in Oct. She stated just mainly because you get does not necessarily mean you gained. So she still has not conceded.”

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He extra incoming White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who also utilized the “stolen” rhetoric to explain the Ga race and Trump’s victory in 2016, should not maintain a “position of authority.”

Previous President Trump and President Biden
(Getty Visuals)

Marc Elias, a Democratic attorney who aided spearhead the notorious Christopher Steele file that helped started out Russiagate, has submitted a go well with challenging the Georgia legislation. He designed headlines previous month when he proposed Georgians could be also puzzled to correctly mark down their driver’s license quantity when filling out an absentee ballot.

“In impact, what he’s striving to do is damage the security of the absentee ballot method,” Raffensperger mentioned. “We now have moved absentee voting to picture I.D. with your driver’s license range. Pretty protected. By elevating the protection, we’re elevating, we feel, the assurance of the system. It took me three-and-a-half years to get the Normal Assembly to do that.”

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He ran on that platform in 2018. Now, he’s hoping it will be adequate to continue to keep him in workplace in 2022.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.