The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to ensure Georgia’s election law is “properly followed” during the January 5 runoff elections. This includes demands that GOP poll watchers be given adequate access and that restrictions regarding the use of ballot drop boxes be obeyed.
The RNC’s lawsuit calls for the enforcement of “two vital facets of the Georgia Election Code governing the rights of duly appointed poll watchers and statutory safeguards attending the use of ballot ‘drop boxes’ as a method of absentee voting.”
The RNC asserted that on the November 3 general election and during subsequent recounts, “the legal right of political party committees to appoint poll watchers to observe the process was abridged in numerous polling and tabulation locations” across the state.
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“Upon information and belief, the same or substantially similar unlawful practices will resume in connection with the imminent January 5, 2021 runoff election,” the lawsuit claims, adding that election officials are “statutorily required to ensure that county and municipal superintendents and registrars are properly and lawfully instructed on the rights of poll watchers and do not implement policies or procedures that impair their ability to fully and meaningfully observe the election process.”
In addition, the Republican lawsuit demands that Georgia clarify rules from the state’s election board to make sure drop boxes are properly surveilled and secure, arguing that drop box laws were not adequately followed during last month’s election.
The RNC claimed that, in April, Georgia’s State Election Board promoted the “Drop Box Rule,” which lets the county registrars “establish one or more drop box locations as a means for absentee by mail electors to deliver their ballots to the county registrars.”
“The Drop Box Rule further mandates continuous video recording surveillance of every drop box location,” the suit reads.
The RNC said the party is “entitled to access or view video surveillance of drop box locations in real time, or as near real time as practicable.”
The suit went on to demand that the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office prepare and distribute materials and guidance for continuous video surveillance of all drop box locations.
“While we continue to fight multiple cases of election irregularities from the general election, we also must fight to ensure they never happen again,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said. “Election laws need to be properly followed so Americans can have confidence in the results.”
McDaniel stated that the RNC lawsuit seeks to force Georgia election officials to simply follow the laws on their books as they pertain to poll watchers and drop boxes.”
“We will never stop fighting to ensure free and fair elections in our country,” she added.
“We must restore confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer told Fox News, which first obtained the RNC lawsuit. “The time for begging elections officials to do their job and obey the law is over.”
An RNC official told the outlet that the party spent tens of millions of dollars over the last two years to fund legal efforts in multiple states in “the fight for election integrity across the country.”
“Democrat lawyers and rogue election officials have made an unprecedented power grab by trying to change election laws and we will continue fighting these challenges in court as long as is necessary to help ensure free and fair elections in our country,” the RNC official said.
Fox News also noted:
The RNC’s lawsuit comes ahead of the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in Georgia. The RNC has sent more than 500 staffers and thousands of volunteers to Georgia for the holidays, and has committed to spending at least $20 million in the Peach State in support of GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of Jan. 5.
The current balance of power for the next Senate coming out of this month’s elections is 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats. That means Democrats must win both of Georgia’s runoff elections to make it a 50-50 Senate. If that occurs … Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote, giving her party a razor-thin majority in the chamber.
Georgia law dictates a runoff if no candidate reaches 50 percent of the vote. Perdue narrowly missed a runoff with 49.75 percent, with Democrat Jon Ossoff trailing by 87,000 votes. In the other race, Loeffler got 26 percent to Democrat Raphael Warnock’s 33 percent in a 20-candidate special election.
