Georgia fighting through election controversy

The 2020 election continues to focus on Georgia.

On Monday, Republican leaders said the state “failed," while the secretary of state, also a Republican, declared Georgia is moving forward and “there is no evidence of widespread fraud.”

The comments keep coming and most are partisan -- like the back and forth between U.S. Senate leaders on Monday.

“We do know a few things. First and foremost, former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden will become the 46th president of the United States," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “We have at least a few states on track for a recount. I believe the President may have legal challenges underway in five states.”

While Schumer and McConnell disagree in Washington, D.C., Georgia is fighting through election controversy.

U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are both in runoffs for their seats. Both are Republicans and both called on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign, saying he failed to “deliver honest and transparent elections.”

Raffensperger, also a Republican, has declared: "There is no evidence of widespread fraud.”

“Look, all of us want secure elections. All of us want every legal vote to be counted, and we don’t want any illegal votes to be counted. Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, that’s what you want and that’s what we deserve," said U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents Southeast Georgia and was just reelected to the House of Representatives.

Carter said the election dispute is about fairness -- not whether someone is Republican or Democrat.

He firmly backed the president on fighting the results so far.

“If there are incidents of that, then I think that everyone has the right to find out the truth here,” Carter said. “Certainly the Trump campaign is doing what I think they should do, and that is that they are suing and they’re bringing it to court, and it should be resolved in court. These are the kinds of things that we simply can’t tolerate in our society.”

One of the big disputes has been about evidence of wrongdoing. Carter said constituents have called his office reporting things like being kept from voting because they were told they already had. He also pointed to people who say they had multiple mail-in ballots sent to them -- even if those people didn’t live at that address anymore.

For their part, elections officials in Georgia are primarily Republicans.

Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan said Monday morning: "At this point, we’ve not seen any sort of credible examples” of voter fraud or disenfranchisement.


About the Author

Kent Justice co-anchors News4Jax's 5 p.m., 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts weeknights and reports on government and politics. He also hosts "This Week in Jacksonville," Channel 4's hot topics and politics public affairs show each Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

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