The most important right of any American is the right to vote. As Georgia’s Secretary of State, I have a constitutional duty to ensure that our elections are secure and accessible to every citizen of our great state. It is a responsibility I take very seriously.
Since being elected, I have led efforts to make voting easier and more secure. Our Office pioneered a program that allows our military and overseas citizens to receive ballots electronically. This cuts the time in half it takes to complete the voting process for these citizens. Among many new online voter tools, I also recently launched an Online Voter Registration program to allow anyone with a Georgia Driver’s License to register to vote or change their voter registration online.
Never in Georgia’s history has it been easier for every citizen to participate in the electoral process than it is today.
Protecting the right to vote is also about making sure that every vote truly counts. Fraudulent activity, in any form, is a serious criminal offense and it undermines what makes our country and our state the envy of the world.
In May of this year, elections officials in Butts County contacted our Investigative Division to report possible illegal voter registration activities. To date, 15 counties have reported suspicious activities by a group called the New Georgia Project. After a preliminary investigation, one third of the reported suspicious voter registration applications have turned out to be confirmed forgeries, which amount to felonies in Georgia.
These disturbing allegations led to a bipartisan and unanimous vote of the State Election Board to issue a subpoena reaffirming the scope of my office’s investigation into that group. We will not know the full scope of the problems until the New Georgia Project complies with that subpoena.
It is the silly season of politics as we near the November elections. While the overheated and racially inflammatory rhetoric of some involved is unfortunate and disappointing, it does not change the simple facts involved.
Contrary to the claims of the New Georgia Project, reprinted many times by this newspaper, they did not self-report any of the forgeries that have been confirmed by our Office on the voter registration forms they submitted to various counties. My Office did not “target” them or impede the right of any citizen to engage in the electoral process. Following state law, local elections officials do an amazing job everyday of managing the elections processes in their communities, and they properly reported these violations.
Ironically, if this group would have simply used the Online Voter Registration program that my office launched this year, these problems could have been avoided.
Much has been made by these groups and certain members of the press of the broader efforts of the New Georgia Project, claiming that the broad reach of their efforts is an excuse for serious criminal activity in a portion of it.
I applaud the efforts of any group, regardless of their political orientation, to register people to vote, but noble intentions are not an excuse to commit felonies in our state.
How many felonies are enough to warrant action by your state government?
As Georgia’s Secretary of State, my answer is that any instance of fraudulent activity or illegal voter registration activity requires action.
