A provision in Georgia’s new election bill is stripping Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of some power he holds over elections. He believes it is a result of the fallout of the 2020 election.
Removing Raffensperger as the chairman of the State Election Board, the provision is replacing him with an appointee to be chosen by the state Legislature, as the Washington Examiner reports.
He said on Wednesday, “I don’t support it. Obviously, the secretary of state has been the chair of the State Election Board since 1960, and in a moment of retribution, I was stripped of that.”
Raffensperger continued, “And now, you’ll have an unelected person. That’s an awful lot of power to give an unelected person of a very important board.”
The new law allows the board to involve itself in counties where officials have been unable to correct “long-term problems of lines, problems with processing of absentee ballots, and other challenges in administration.”
According to Raffensperger, he was not included in the process of finalizing the bill.
“We were not asked to really be part of it after what happened after the 2020 elections,” he said. “But now, here we are, and we’re now speaking about the good parts of the bill.”
The secretary of state said he “had an opportunity to weigh in” on the provision regarding the board and “our position on that was very clear.”
He continued, “But at the end of the day, that’s what got passed.”
Raffensperger explained the provision will “come to be looked at in future time as that was not really a very well-thought-out, well-reasoned measure because at the end of the day … the State Election Board chairman is not accountable to the voter.”
Former President Donald Trump blasted Raffensperger following the election for claiming the state had a “wildly successful and smooth election.”
He called Raffensperger an “enemy of the people.”
Trump later called on him to help “find” the votes he needed to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. Raffensperger told the former president Georgia had to “stand by” their numbers and told him the numbers are “right.”
Last month, Trump endorsed a primary challenger to Raffensperger, Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.).