Georgia
Georgia Reporter: Bipartisan group of former Georgia elected officials vouch for integrity of state’s election system
Stanley Dunlap of The Georgia Recorder reports former Georgia elected officials have confidence in the integrity of the state’s election system.
A bipartisan group of influential former Georgia elected officials stressed at an Atlanta Press Club event Monday the importance of building confidence in Georgia’s elections heading into the Nov. 5 election.
Former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, ex-Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and former Atlanta Democratic Mayor Shirley Franklin gathered together for the first time Monday since teaming up in June in support of the Democracy Defense Project’s national effort to restore trust in statewide elections.
Over the last few weeks, the four members of Georgia’s Democracy Defense Project have appeared on radio shows, written op-ed columns, posted on social media and explained the laws and protocols in place protecting Georgia’s election system as they they seek to combat misinformation that’s played a role in the public’s waning trust since the 2020 presidential election.
Panel moderator and Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein asked the Republican members how GOP leaders can counteract messages that continue to undermine faith in elections. He referenced a recent AJC poll which shows that about three-quarters of Republicans and one-third of independents still believe there is widespread election fraud.
Deal said members of the Republican Party must ask why it’s putting some people in leadership positions who continue to spread distrust in elections without credible evidence.
“Are we allowing them to be talking about things that they can’t prove?” asked Deal, who spent two terms as governor before leaving office in early 2019. “If they are there, they’re doomed for failure. Neither party should be going into any election with the idea that they’re going to explain away the reason they lose by setting it up in advance. Whoever played a basketball game, football game with that kind of attitude. You can’t blame the referees after the game is already over with.”