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Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston (R) is coming out against a recent effort taken by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to mail absentee ballot request forms to all voters in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying the move could be “devastating” for Republican candidates.
Last week, Raffensperger announced the state would be mailing absentee ballot request forms to its nearly 7 million voters “in an effort to allow as many Georgia voters as possible to exercise their right to vote without leaving their homes.”
The move came a week after the state postponed its presidential primary from March 24 until May 19, as officials nationwide have urged the public to stay indoors as much as possible and to avoid large gatherings in a bid to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
During an interview released on Wednesday, Ralston was asked about concerns he had regarding Raffensperger’s move.
“Could it jeopardize Republican control the House and Senate in the state? Could it jeopardize, you know, other races up and down the ballot in 2020?" FetchYourNews host BKP asked the state leader.
Ralston said one of his main problems with the mass-scale voting effort were the possibility of fraud. He also pointed to concerns he thinks voters may have about “breaches of security systems and data systems.”
“And then another concern,” Ralston said, “and this comes under the category of you can't ever do too much, because now I read that, you know, members of these groups are not just [concerned] with voting by mail but they want the state to give them a stamp.”
According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, local Democrats have called on the government to cover the cost for postage to help some of those voting by mail.
“So, here, you know, the process keeps going up and up and up and so a multitude of reasons why vote by mail in my view is not acceptable,” Ralston went on, before adding “the president said it best, this will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia.”
Georgia’s GOP House Speaker says vote-by-mail system would be ‘devastating to Republicans’
Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston (R) is coming out against a recent effort taken by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to mail absentee ballot request forms to all voters in…
thehill.com