Raffensperger makes case directly to Georgians on need for federal ban on ballot harvesting

ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Tuesday renewed his call for a nationwide ban on ballot harvesting.

Ballot harvesting permits private individuals to collect other voters' ballots, then submit the ballots to polling stations.

Raffensperger, at a press conference at the state capitol, said no one person, especially a partisan actor, should act as a conduit between a voter and an election official.

"That is why my first act as Secretary of State was to get ballot harvesting banned in the state of Georgia," said Raffensperger. "An election in North Carolina was overturned because of ballot harvesting and also in New Jersey, related to ballot harvesting schemes. This should be illegal nationwide."

Raffensperger called for a ballot harvesting ban one week after Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones called on the federal government to investigate new claims of such practices in the state.

Georgia authorities are investigating an allegation of systematic ballot harvesting during the state’s 2020 general election and subsequent U.S. Senate runoff. Jones said he had documented at least one instance of a drop box location not on public or municipal property, and, if true, that violates Georgia law.

Raffensperger, on Tuesday, also called for a federal law that would cut down the blackout period for elections officials to perform voter roll maintenance.

"As we saw in 2020, the 90-day federal blackout period before an election makes it essentially impossible for us to update our voter rolls during an election year. Studies show that 11 percent of all Americans move every year," said Raffensperger, who is seeking reelection this year.

"In Georgia that 11% would represent 200,000 Georgians. What that leads to is voter lists becoming outdated by the time that the elections begin."

Raffensperger also called for national voter ID laws, which he said 80% of all Americans support. He then repeated a call he first made in August to allow only U.S citizens to vote, via a Constitutional amendment.

He also President Biden and other liberals lied about Georgia's new voter integrity law, SB 202.

Major League Baseball (MLB) executives, incensed over the law, pulled last year’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta and moved it to Colorado. The move cost Atlanta more than $100 million in revenue.

Georgia’s new voter integrity law requires voter ID on all absentee ballots. The law also increases oversight of local election boards that fail to follow state election law, and secures drop boxes around the clock. Officials at Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines announced last year that they also opposed the state Senate bill.