Campaign check: Loeffler implies Warnock tie to voter investigation

The statement:

“Warnock-led group under investigation for voter fraud,” -Headline, Sen. Kelly Loeffler campaign website, Dec. 1

What we found:

Last month, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said his office was investigating voter registration groups alleged to have sent applications to people in other states ahead of the U.S. Senate runoff in January, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

While the state’s investigation of group’s is to see whether fraud might have occurred, in many previous investigations the finding was not fraud but a much more benign explanation.

The New Georgia Project, founded by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, was among the groups identified. The organization faces accusations that it sent voter registration applications to people in New York City, the AJC reported.

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, formerly was the chairman of the New Georgia Project but stepped down in January to run for the U.S. Senate, according to the organization. He’s running against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in the January U.S. Senate runoff election.

The day after Raffensperger’s announcement, Loeffler’s campaign posted a statement with the headline: “Warnock-led group under investigator for voter fraud.”

But the scope of Raffensberger’s query is unclear. His announcement says the investigation into the New Georgia Project was prompted by complaints about voter registration solicitations “over the past several weeks.” Warnock left his leadership position with the organization in January, the group said.

A spokesman for the secretary of state said that Raffensperger’s office “will continue to question and fully investigate those who fight so hard to keep non-Georgia residents on the voter rolls.” The spokesman did not specify the time frame of the investigation after a query from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The New Georgia Project launched in 2014 as a voter registration initiative from Third Sector Development, a non-profit foundation led by Abrams, then a state representative, the AJC reported. Warnock was quoted as a spokesman for the initiative in 2014, but at that point, the New Georgia Project was not a standalone organization.

In 2017, the New Georgia Project was incorporated with Warnock listed as CEO, according to documents filed with the secretary of state’s office. The organization was incorporated in Delaware and authorized to transact business in Georgia, the documents say.

But Warnock was the board chairman and never the CEO — the paperwork was filed in error, according to Nse Ufot, the New Georgia Project’s current CEO.

“A third-party firm misfiled our corporate documents with the secretary of state. Rev. Raphael Warnock has never been CEO of New Georgia Project,” Ufot said in a statement to the AJC. “He was the board chairman until his resignation via letter on Jan. 28, 2020. The two positions are not interchangeable.”

After being named in the state’s investigation, the New Georgia Project posted a statement saying Raffensperger “resurrected a tired and false claim against the New Georgia Project’s legitimate efforts to register eligible Georgians to participate in elections.”

According to the AJC, “It’s unclear whether anything illegal occurred — one of Raffensperger’s top deputies said the issues under investigation could be legitimate or accidental.”

It is illegal for residents of other states to vote in a Georgia election, as illustrated in a recent Wake Forest Law Review report. However, Georgia residents who are temporarily living outside of the state are allowed to vote by absentee ballot.

Many voter registration groups, including the New Georgia Project, send out voter registration forms and work directly with potential voters to encourage election turnout. Georgia set a record with nearly 5 million votes cast in November’s presidential election — about 65% of the state’s 7.6 million registered voters.

Raffensperger announced his investigation at a time when state officials were facing intense pressure from President Donald Trump and his supporters over the administration of the general election, according to the AJC. His office said there were more than 250 active investigations from 2020.

But a review by the AJC found the Raffensperger’s claims about the investigations “lacked context and overestimated” the numbers. “The actual number is approximately 130, and the vast majority the AJC reviewed involve procedural matters unrelated to fraud or isolated cases involving single voters,” according to the recent news report.

On Dec. 2, Loeffler tweeted that New Georgia Project had been the subject of an earlier investigation. The AJC previously reported that in 2014, Governor Brian Kemp, then secretary of state, launched an investigation of the organization.

The investigation ended in 2017 and the organization faced no charges, according to an AJC report. The State Election Board instead recommended charges against 17 individual canvassers who worked for the group, but the state attorney general has not pursued legal action against those individuals.

Feedback: Send your campaign questions to senatewatch@ajc.com