Georgia Senate run-off urges investigation into elections of groups trying to register out-of-state voters

Georgia’s top election official said he was opening an investigation into whether third-party groups were attempting to register people from other states to vote illegally in the Jan. 5 twin Senate elections in Georgia, when the majority of the GOP in the bedroom is at stake.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters on Monday that “we have opened an investigation into a group called America Votes, which sends mail-in voting requests to people at addresses where they have not resided since 1994”.

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Raffensperger, a Republican, also said his investigators are looking at “Vote Forward, which attempted to register a dead Alabama voter, female, to vote here in Georgia.” He also highlighted “The New Georgia Project, which sent voter registration requests to New York.”

The Secretary of State also referred to “Operation New Voter Registration in Georgia, which tells students in Georgia that they can change their residence in Georgia and then change it after the election.”

Raffensperger pointed out that “voting in Georgia while you are not a resident of Georgia is a crime. And encouraging students to commit crimes regardless of what it might mean to them is despicable. These third party groups have a responsibility not to encourage illegal voting. If they do, they will be held accountable. “

Raffensperger’s office also has 23 investigators working on 250 investigations into “credible allegations of illegal voting” and violations of electoral law, he said.

Gabriel Sterling, the election official who manages Georgia’s electoral system, told reporters that “this is new information, these outside groups attempting to register people potentially illegally, in other states.”

Sterling said these third party groups seem to “literally say ‘hey, it’s okay to commit a crime.’

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And Raffensperger stressed that “this office will continue to take steps to protect the voting rights of legally registered Georgians in this state, Republicans, Democrats, Independents and whatever party you may be a member of.”

The current balance of power for the next Senate following this month’s election is 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats. This means Democrats must win both Georgia ballots to make it a 50-50 Senate. If that happens, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the deciding vote, giving her party a tiny majority in the House.

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In Georgia, where state law dictates a run-off if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, GOP Senator David Perdue narrowly missed a run-off, winning 49.75 percent of the vote. Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff is down by around 87,000 votes.

In the other race, Republican Senator named Kelly Loeffler captured nearly 26% of the vote in a huge special election of 20 candidates to fill the last two years of former GOP Senator Johnny Isakson’s tenure. Democratic second-round candidate Reverend Raphael Warnock won nearly 33 percent of the vote in the first round.