Seeking Republican Love, Raffensperger Goes After Voter Registration Groups

DECEMBER 3, 2020

BY BRITTANY GIBSON

More than a month of relentless scrutiny of the general election in Georgia has led to a hand recount of the presidential ballots, groundless lawsuits from the Trump campaign, and now an investigation from Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into four organizations dedicated to voter registration and outreach.

For upholding the validity of Georgia’s presidential vote, both Raffensperger and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp have been subjected to vicious attacks by President Trump and his followers. Until last month, however, both Raffensperger and Kemp (who preceded Raffensperger as secretary of state) had engaged in ultra-partisan purges of disproportionately Democratic voters from the state’s voter rolls. Raffensperger’s current efforts appear to be a reversion to his more customary partisan biases.

Raffensperger announced his new investigation during one of his office’s now twice-daily press conferences on Monday, November 30, zeroing in solely on progressive operations: The New Georgia Project, America Votes, Vote Forward, and Operation New Voter Registration Georgia. His allegations against the groups, however, have failed to highlight more than one-off oddities, some of which have also occurred under the aegis of Republican organizations—none of which Raffensperger is investigating.

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