(The Center Square) – Passage of a resolution urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over voter information to the U.S. Department of Justice has been recommended by the Ethics Committee in the state Senate.
Raffensperger, not in attendance of the election board on Thursday, is refusing to turn over the information saying it would violate state law. A lawsuit has been filed by the Justice Department.“Our office has complied with Department of Justice’s request to the fullest extent of state law,” a statement from the office says. “If the Senate wishes for our office to release every Georgia voter’s driver’s license number, date of birth, and Social Security number with no clear limits or supervision, they need to change the law they wrote and passed.”Republicans contended a code section in Georgia law would allow Raffensperger to share the information. Atlanta Democrat Nan Orrock asked deputy legislative counsel Stuart Morelli for clarification.”It’s just going to be a very factual specific determination as to whether that code section applies and I am just not familiar enough with the exact request from the Department of Justice to give a firm opinion on the matter,” Morelli told the committee.Orrock and Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, and Harold Jones, D-Augusta, voted against the resolution.”Once that information is released to the Department of Justice, no matter what the courts might rule, you can never pull back that information,” Orrock said. “It’s like putting toothpaste back in a tube.”Jones pointed out that U.S. District Court Judge David Carter ruled against the Justice Department in its requests for the voter information from California.”The DOJ’s request for the sensitive information of Californians stands to have a chilling effect on American citizens like political minority groups and working-class immigrants who may consider not registering to vote or skip casting a ballot because they are worried about how their information will be used,” Carter said in the ruling published on the League of Women Voters’ website. “There cannot be unbridled consolidation of all elections power in the executive without action from Congress and public debate.”Republican lawmakers said Raffensperger has not sat down with the Department of Justice.”The primary concern of my mind is that we are not fully engaging to do this,” Robertson said. “What we are doing is we are spending taxpayer resources to fight something that we have not sat down and fully vetting out with the Department of Justice.”The committee also questioned why Raffensperger had not sought funding to end the use of QR codes during ballot counting. The General Assembly passed a bill in 2024 banning them beginning July 1 of this year, but did not provide any funding. Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, blamed Raffensperger, saying he has not asked for funding.”The secretary of state has had three years to address the elimination of QR codes from ballots in Georgia,” Burns said. “And he has to my knowledge, made no reasonable attempt to do that.”
