ATLANTA (AP) — Four prominent former officials in Georgia, which has been a major front for disinformation about the democratic process, are joining a group that says it will try to counter efforts to make people distrust the election. .
Those who have signed on to the Defense Democracy Project, whose launch was announced Tuesday, include two Georgia Republicans, former Gov. Nathan Business and former US Senator. Saxby Chamblissand two Democrats, former governor. Roy Barnes and former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin.
“For too long, politicians, pundits and activists have worked overtime to sow distrust in the American electoral process,” Deal said in a statement. “We refuse to stand on the sidelines as the foundation of this great nation is eroded by misinformation and dangerous political agendas. Our goal is to restore confidence in the electoral process that makes this country exceptional.”
The four are members of the Georgia council in a national effort that it says will seek news coverage as well as raise money to buy advertising to resist efforts to undermine the election and try to persuade people to move beyond “polarizing rhetoric.”
The group says it is focusing on states where Democrats and Republicans are competitive in elections. Other board members include three former governors, Republicans Jan Brewer of Arizona and Brian Sandoval of Nevada, as well as Democrat Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.
Their announcement comes two days before the Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump meet to first debate of the 2024 campaign in Atlanta.
Trump’s fellow Republicans, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger drew his ire after the 2020 election for refusing to help him overturn legitimate results that were confirmed by multiple recounts.
The anger that Trump has sparked among his supporters has led to an ongoing uprising in Georgia politics It is electoral politics. A Republican-majority legislature made repeated changes to the state electoral lawsBut local and state election officials still face furious critics demanding that they acknowledge that the 2020 election was stolen and that the state’s election system is deeply flawed.
The turmoil extends far beyond Georgia. Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee, continues to sow doubts about the last presidential election and is warning his followers – without citing any evidence – that Democrats will try to cheat next time.
Just 22% of Republicans expressed high confidence that votes will be counted accurately in November, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last year.
A recent survey conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law found that nearly 40 percent of local election officials have experienced threats or harassment. The abuse caused many to leave their jobs.
“While it may be politically advantageous to undermine America’s core values, it is a damaging and damaging game with lasting consequences for ‘We the People,’” Barnes said in a statement. He was Georgia’s most recent Democratic governor, serving from 1999 to 2003.
Chambliss, who was a U.S. senator from 2003 to 2015 and a member of the U.S. House from 1995 to 2003, is a longtime supporter of Raffensperger and Georgia’s election system. He was one of the few Republicans to come forward in the weeks after the 2020 election for defend Raffensperger against Trump’s attacks, saying at the time that “there simply is no such thing as widespread fraud”.
The four join others who have come together to speak out in defense of the way American elections are conducted. This includes a group of Republican election officials coordinated by the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the center-right think tank R Street Institute. This group aims to rally Republicans to affirm the security of elections in the United States and avoid raising doubts about election results elsewhere.
