Warnock: Partisan interests are behind recent Georgia election board rule changes
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia speaks at an Atlanta press conference on Nov. 15, 2022. (Matthew Pearson/ WABE)
On the same day Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock addressed the DNC, the Georgia State Election Board approved changes to allow local election boards to delay certifying results if it suspects fraud.
The senator from Georgia said Republicans and Democrats should be deeply concerned about the changes.
“It seems to me that there are MAGA right-wing extremists right now who are positioning themselves to create an excuse for not certifying the results of an election they don’t like,” he told WABE.
The latest rule by the State Election Board goes further than a similar measure that received backlash when it passed earlier this month.
Under the earlier rule, local election boards can conduct “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results. Monday’s rule allows local boards to halt counting votes if a discrepancy exists between the number of voters and the number of votes. The state board would then investigate the discrepancy, and if it determines that there is fraud, it will “determine a method to compute the votes justly.”
“Each side gets to make its case, and then at the end of the day, the four most powerful words of democracy are, ‘The people have spoken,’” he said. “But what we are seeing in this instance is an effort by some to undermine that very premise, and so we must remain vigilant. I’d like to see us win this cycle, and not just win but win by margins that are large enough to make it difficult, at least, for people who are bad actors.”
Changes in election procedure have been a hot-button issue in the state. Former Georgia House Minority Leader and Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams told NPR at the DNC that voter suppression has been present in the state for a long time.
“If we do not certify elections by Dec. 17, this could throw Georgia’s electoral college votes to the U.S. House of Representatives, which could mean that voters are denied their choice, and that’s deeply dangerous,” she said.
Warnock also addressed recent reporting about continued efforts by the Trump campaign and the Republican Party to attract Black male voters.
“We are a diverse community. He’ll get some voters. But I do think that the storyline is grossly overstated,” he said. “Donald Trump is a con man and part of the narrative that’s being created that somehow there are huge swaths of Black men who are gonna vote for Donald Trump. I don’t believe it.”
Warnock says the path for Vice President Kamala Harris to win Georgia is similar to his of winning Democratic base voters, a large number of independents and some Republicans with issues like housing affordability and taxes.
Meimei Xu contributed to this report.
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