Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger chastised U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and other Democrats for spreading misinformation about voter suppression in the state, saying it is "dangerous to public trust in elections."
Georgia had record voting turnout in a Senate runoff that Warnock won by 2.5% over Republican Herschel Walker. But in his victory speech, Warnock 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."
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published Sunday, Raffensperger 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."
The Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature passed a voting reform law in 2021 that included measures to expand ballot access, a voter ID requirement for requesting absentee ballots, and limiting the number and increasing security for drop boxes.
Raffensperger said he and fellow Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, both of whom were reelected this year, stood by the 2020 election as being fair, the same as they did in 2018, when Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly lost to Kemp. Abrams, who lost to Kemp this year by a wider margin, claimed voter suppression was the reason for her 2018 defeat.
Raffensperger noted the hypocrisy of Warnock, who claimed in 2020 "the state of Georgia has failed to protect our basic right to vote" but had a different take after Biden won the state.
"After Mr. Biden won Georgia's 2020 presidential contest, Mr. Warnock changed his tune, repeatedly describing Georgia's 2020 general election as 'free' and 'fair,' " Raffensperger wrote.
Warnock responded to Raffensperger on Monday on "CBS This Morning."
"The fact that people have had to overcome barriers doesn't mean those barriers don't exist," Warnock said in a video clip the program posted on Twitter. "We literally saw college students and seniors in lines that were hours and hours and hours long. Maybe he's happy with that. I'm not."
Raffensperger wrote Democrats such as Biden labeled the state's election reforms as "Jim Crow 2.0" and Abrams called Republicans "domestic enemies."
"What was the result of all this 'voter suppression?' " Raffensperger wrote. "Record turnout in election after election and calls from Mr. Biden to move Georgia's primary up in the calendar to make it more influential in his reelection bid. He doesn't believe his own claims."
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