Georgia Republicans are going to war with democracy to prevent another election loss

Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Friday December 11, 2020 · 5:58 AM PST

2020/12/11 · 05:58

ATLANTA, GA - NOVEMBER 06: Georgia Secretary of State Ben Raffensperger holds a press conference on the status of ballot counting on November 6, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. The 2020 presidential race between incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is still too close to call with outstanding ballots in a number of states including Georgia. (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) — Brad Raffensperger

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President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia and two Democrats forced Senate runoffs. Georgia Republicans are determined not to let that happen again, and obviously their plan for doing it is not to “try to appeal to more voters.” No, it’s “make sure fewer people can vote, especially the Black and Brown ones.”

First, of course, they’re trying to steal these elections with a truly impressive number of lawsuits. In addition to the multiple efforts to overturn Trump’s loss—including the one from Texas challenging the results in four states that are not Texas—there are three separate challenges to the runoffs. The Georgia Republican Party is challenging the “integrity of processing absentee ballots,” which is to say they want more ways to throw out absentee ballots over signature issues. The Twelfth Congressional District Republican Committee is suing over signature verification but also the use of unattended drop boxes and early processing of absentee ballots. And the Republican National Committee is suing over the use of drop boxes and also over poll watcher access. Consider the zone flooded.

Can you chip in $3 to help Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff turn the Senate blue?

But that’s not all, of course. Republicans in the state legislature are pushing to change the laws to make it more difficult to vote. Those efforts include at least one effort to outlaw something that’s already illegal—that’s how hard they’re looking for voting-related things to outlaw. The level of racism is remarkable—Republicans voted absentee in large numbers for years, but all it took was one year of a lot of Black people voting absentee for Democrats, and boom, Republicans are clamping down.

Then you’ve got reduced early voting locations in some counties for the runoff elections, including Cobb County, which went for Biden by 14 points. Election officials cite not just the pandemic and the holidays but the recent workload of the two recounts to determine that yes, Donald Trump really really lost.

And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s showy attack on voter registration organizations in the form of an investigation that New Georgia Project’s Nse Ufot called “flimsy as hell—their evidence is thinner than a single strand of hair.” Raffensperger is trying to use that investigation to claw his way back to Republican good graces after he dared say that the general election results were accurate and fair, leading to attacks and even threats to him and his family, as well as a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would make the secretary of state appointed by the legislature rather than elected by voters.

This is an all-out war on democracy from Republicans. It can only be countered by overwhelming organization and mobilization by progressives.

We need all hands on deck to win the Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, and you can volunteer from wherever you are. Click here to see the Georgia volunteer activities that work best for you.

Georgia Republicans are going to war with democracy to prevent another election loss

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