Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) are trading blows in the media after Raffensperger’s Sunday Wall Street Journal op-ed “Raphael Warnock, Election Denier.”
“I have to spend a lot of time shooting down false claims about our elections in Georgia. Usually they come from losers. But sometimes even victorious candidates make false claims about our elections,” Raffensperger wrote, placing Warnock alongside Stacy Abrams and former President Donald Trump.
Raffensperger cited Warnock’s recent victory speech where the senator said, “Just because [voters] endured the rain and cold and all kinds of tricks in order to vote, doesn’t mean that voter suppression does not exist.”
The secretary of state wrote, “I thought I had heard every conspiracy theory there was after the 2020 election, but the idea that Republicans control the weather to make it harder for Democrats to vote is a new one. I pity the voters of the Northeast’s blue states who regularly vote in the cold—largely with less early voting than Georgia if they have any at all.”
Defending Georgia’s election laws, Raffensperger noted record turnout in recent elections, including in early voting for the general election and the runoff. Despite the his own call to limit the use of runoffs, Raffensperger criticized The Washington Post for reporting that the runoff system was created to limit Black voting power.
Raffensperger also cited short lines during recent elections.
“Although the New York Times all but wished for ‘long lines and wet weather’ on our runoff-election day, there were short lines across the Atlanta metro area and throughout the state,” Raffensperger wrote.
On Monday, Warnock appeared on CBS Mornings, where he said,”We should not assume that because I won, that voter suppression is not an issue in Georgia.”
Warnock noted that he had to sue and appeal to get early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
“The fact that people have had to overcome barriers doesn’t mean those barriers don’t exist. We literally saw college students and seniors and lines that were hours and hours and hours long. Maybe he’s happy with that. I’m not.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Raphael Warnock” by Reverend Raphael Warnock. Photo “Brad Raffensperger” by GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Background Photo “Election Day 2022” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.
