‘Groundhog Day’: FBI raid reignites Georgia’s voting wars
Monday was Groundhog Day in more ways than one.
In the Georgia House, lawmakers braced for a renewed clash over voting rules. The Senate erupted into a bitter, partisan debate over the 2020 election. And across the Capitol, Democrats prepared for yet another battle over ballot access.
Voting rights had not been a centerpiece issue in an election-year session dominated by affordability and other pocketbook concerns.
But the FBI’s seizure of three truckloads of Fulton County election data last week has pulled election policy back to the forefront of a political divide still shaped by President Donald Trump’s attempt to undo his 2020 loss.
Republicans have again leaned on the language of “election integrity” and tighter security, while Democrats warn of fresh restrictions on the franchise. Yet this latest episode is also exposing tensions within the GOP that have been simmering beneath the surface.
On the campaign trail, some Republicans embraced the Trump administration’s seizure of troves of 2020 Fulton County ballots. Others, wary of reopening old wounds, tried to sidestep the debate altogether.
In the House, private GOP concerns about a proposal to overhaul the state’s touchscreen voting system delayed a key committee vote on the measure.
FBI raids Fulton election office
Search warrants showed agents were seeking ballots from the 2020 election that Donald Trump has claimed was filled with fraud. Past recounts and court challenges have not backed up those assertions. Read more
Live updates: Fulton County preps legal strategy
Five Questions: What next after election records seized
Election law: Could raid set the stage for takeover of Fulton’s elections?
Reaction: Shockwaves across Georgia’s political landscape
FAQ: Here’s what we know so far
Timeline: How we got here
Listen to the AJC’s Breakdown podcast: Inside the campaign to undermine Georgia’s 2020 election
Video: Greg Bluestein describes the scene
Opinion: The FBI raid isn’t about the 2020 elections. It’s about 2026 and 2028.
The latest move is an escalation in the ongoing battle over the results of the 2020 presidential election. This month:
And in the Senate, Democrats delivered unusually harsh and personal criticism against an election-related measure.
An unmistakable pall hung over the Capitol, with political leaders earnestly asking one another whether the FBI’s raid was a prelude to election officials being frogmarched out in handcuffs. Democrats, meanwhile, were in little mood to tiptoe around the moment.
State Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, gave a lengthy floor speech that doubled as a psychoanalytic discourse in which he compared Senate Republicans to Trump sycophants who shamelessly enable his “narcissistic” behavior.
“The destruction of your own voices and your own public consciences is the biggest tragedy in all of this,” he said as Senate Republicans, watched in stony-faced silence.
“This, too, shall pass. Donald Trump will meet some kind of end in terms of his time in office, and hopefully we can go back to our normal lives,” McLaurin added. “But the damage that you have done for the last 10 years, and on days like today, to your own voices, is going to be very hard to recover from.”
‘Nationalize the voting’
The flashpoint Monday was a Senate move by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ allies to rebuke Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — his chief GOP rival in the governor’s race — over his refusal to comply with the Trump administration’s demand for voter data. Raffensperger has said doing so would violate Georgia law forbidding the sharing of sensitive information.
In the Senate’s typically genteel language, supporters framed the measure not as a politically motivated swipe at Raffensperger but as a necessary nudge to press him to comply with the Justice Department’s directive.
“Today, all we are doing is urging an elected official to do what Georgia law says he should do. That’s all. It’s that simple. Don’t make it more than it is,” said Republican state Sen. Randy Robertson, a close Jones ally.
But what might have been a procedural skirmish in another year became a fresh proxy war over Trump and who controls the next chapter of Georgia’s election system.
“Stop being scared. If you’re scared, you ought not to run for office. We need folks who will stand up,” Democratic state Sen. David Lucas said, scolding his colleagues. “That’s why you have protests all across the country about this president. He’s a criminal. That’s what he is.”
After days of silence, Raffensperger waded into the debate on Monday as well with a pointed dispatch that read: “Groundhog Day Returns.”
His message was that the 2020 election is over, and voters deserve better than a rerun of the same fight.
But he also urged lawmakers to avoid “moving to federalize a core function of state government” and cling tight to Georgia’s model of election oversight. It’s a warning that seemed less hypothetical later that day when Trump mused on a podcast that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump’s most ardent allies, meanwhile, continued to praise the FBI’s investigation into the 2020 vote as a bid for transparency.
“There are a lot of lingering concerns about election security and fairness, and the only way to answer those is a full, transparent process,” said state Sen. Blake Tillery, a Republican contender for lieutenant governor. He added: “Any politician who fears an investigation shouldn’t be trusted at all.”
Others sidestepped it entirely. Attorney General Chris Carr, a GOP contender for governor, referred questions to federal officials and Fulton County.
It evoked shades of years past in Georgia when the 2018 election between Gov. Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams became an epic proxy fight over voting rights or the months after Trump’s 2020 defeat when Republicans muscled through a vast rewrite of election law.
Some saw the makings of another battle that could quickly engulf Georgia politics.
Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts, a Democrat with plenty of cross-aisle support, trekked to the Capitol for private meetings seeking to lower the temperature.
An escalation may be inevitable. Democratic state Rep. Saira Draper, one of her party’s voting rights experts, said she expects the raid to be used as a “pretext” to overhaul voting rules and pave the way for a state takeover of Fulton’s election system — a prospect State Election Board members acknowledge is under consideration.
“There is no reason to do this unless you’re trying to bring up additional questions, sow additional doubts,” said Draper of the raid. “If the state is permitted to overtake Fulton County elections, it’s the difference between a win or a loss in Georgia for Democrats and Republicans.”
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
