Federal overreach undermines Constitution and Georgia state-run elections

In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice has quietly launched a sweeping campaign to obtain election and voter data from states across the country, including Georgia.

These outreach efforts have included requests for personal information on all Georgia voters, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, full dates of birth and which party primary you previously voted in. DOJ says it needs this personal identifying information on all Georgia voters to ensure election integrity, but as we say in Georgia, that dog don’t hunt.

As the Georgia state chair of RightCount, a national organization working to protect voter confidence while safeguarding the constitutional role of states in administering elections, former president pro tem of the Georgia state Senate and a lifelong conservative Republican, I want to be clear: This is not oversight.

It’s overreach. And it should concern every conservative — every American — who values civil liberties, federalism, the rule of law and local control.

Georgia has some of the best election laws in the country

Let’s start with the basics. The U.S. Constitution gives states, not Washington, D.C., the authority to conduct and manage elections. America’s founders designed it that way on purpose, believing that decentralization protects against both fraud and tyranny. For centuries, that model has worked well. And here in Georgia, we have nothing to hide.

Eric Johnson is state chair of RightCount, a national organization working to protect voter confidence while safeguarding the constitutional role of states in administering elections. He is also former president pro tem of the Georgia state Senate and a lifelong conservative Republican. (Courtesy of Eric Johnson)

Let’s start with the basics. The U.S. Constitution gives states, not Washington, D.C., the authority to conduct and manage elections. America’s founders designed it that way on purpose, believing that decentralization protects against both fraud and tyranny. For centuries, that model has worked well. And here in Georgia, we have nothing to hide.

Republicans opposed attempts to nationalize elections before

One of the first things Nancy Pelosi did when she became speaker of the House for the final time following the 2020 election is introduce H.R. 1, which was a blatant attempt to federalize elections.

Conservatives uniformly and rightfully opposed this attempt to take over a power the U.S. Constitution reserves to the states. Arming the federal government with a national database of voter information, complete with private information and voter history, is the first step to federalizing elections, and conservatives should oppose it now just as we did when Nancy Pelosi tried it.

Let’s be honest, if this were Barack Obama’s or Joe Biden’s administration asking Republican-led states for detailed, sensitive voter data, conservatives would rightly call it out as a misuse of federal power.

The federal government has no right to pry into the lawful actions of state election officials with no clear legal basis, no transparency and no constitutional authority. And they certainly don’t have the right to obtain private information on every Georgian with no basis.

There is a role for the federal government in securing our elections, but it certainly does not require every state’s voter list with voters’ private information. Instead, the federal government should focus on protecting our borders and our cyber networks from foreign actors who wish us harm. They certainly do not need my private information to do that.