Republican wins Georgia secretary of state election viewed as referendum on voter suppression allega

[Calista241]

Source: ABC News

Republican wins Georgia secretary of state election viewed as referendum on voter suppression allegations

In a runoff contest widely viewed as a referendum on allegations of voter suppression and disenfranchisement that marred Georgia's midterm races this year, Republican former state Rep. Brad Raffensperger has won the election for state secretary of state, the Associated Press projects.

Raffensperger defeated former U.S. Rep. John Barrow in the race, which advanced to a second round after no candidate received a majority of the votes last month.

Normally something of an afterthought at the national level, the secretary of state election gained prominence in the aftermath of Georgia's high-profile gubernatorial contest. It was a prime example of the Democratic voter enthusiasm in 2018, but one in which Democrat Stacey Abrams nevertheless fell short of upsetting her Republican rival, Gov.-elect Brian Kemp.

On Election Day last month, Raffensperger received 49.09 percent to Barrow's 48.67 percent, a difference of just over 16,000 votes. Voting that night, and early voting in the weeks prior, overseen by the secretary of state's office, featured scores of complaints across Georgia about voter registration purging and difficulties in obtaining absentee ballots and confirming their receipt and legitimacy.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/georgia-secretary-state-runoff-framed-proxy-gubernatorial-rematch/story?id=59483556

[AJT]

1. Way to drop the ball dems.....too lazy to vote?

[regnaD kciN]

2. Or maybe still not allowed to?

I see no sign the voter suppression measures in place in November had been lifted this time.

[Cattledog]

8. Dems here in Ga didn't turn out

That’s a fact.

[Polybius]

21. Did Republicans?

Or was no one motivated in this one?

[diva77]

4. I doubt that was the cause of the loss

[brush]

12. Or it means repug vote suppression did its job as there shouldn't have had to be a run-off...

where all the intense scrutiny is off and with light voting their dirty tricks can easily alter the result.

[diva77]

3. Not sure I understand the meaning of this: "viewed as a referendum on voter suppression allegations"

Is ABC, corporate news, assuming that the outcome of this election has settled the matter once and for all???? How shallow and ill thought out is that statement?!!!

The election fraud didn't just suddenly disappear. From what I can tell, they used the same nonverifiable DREs for this election.

[delisen]

5. Voting was very light in my precinct.

[kimbutgar]

6. Come on in Georgia did you expect any different?

Those fabulous hackable voting machines always deliver to the repukes.

[mpcamb]

9. Agree. I think this is the major reason r's win.

It's about time for a hacker tell-all story about election shenanigans.
Unless my conspiracy theories are too far fetch,
there must be someone somewhere ready to spill.

[bearsfootball516]

10. I don't think that was it.

Several Georgia DU’ers in previous threads saying turnout was extremely light compared to Election Day.

It’s likely that without Abrams on the ticket, many Democrats stayed home.

[Cattledog]

11. Yep Dems stayed home down here.

I guess we are cool with voter suppression.

[Calista241]

16. Barrow wasn't a great candidate IMO, and I live here in Georgia.

He has this country accent that I find a little annoying. He looks and sounds just like any other Repub candidate for office. If you want people in the city to get out and vote, you should at least try and reach out to them.

His ads, for the most part, showed the landscape of rural Georgia, and he talked about how Democrats weren't scary.

[Cattledog]

7. 1.3 million people who voted Dem in Nov, had more important things to do.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

13. Election fatigue for Georgia Dems?

Many Georgia Repugs are strongly encouraged to vote by their churches and it could be a right-wing issue is waiting in the wings that needs a friendly SOS. I've known of Baptist churches in the Atlanta area allowing distribution of Repug swiftboat hate literature on their property several years ago.

Just as with the media, Dems do not have parallel structures to right-wing churches or Faux News/talk radio to provide local social counterbalance for our society.

..............

[LBM20]

14. No excuses. If you don't vote, you lose. simple as that.

[gademocrat7]

15. So very disheartening.

[Polybius]

17. Why wasn't the vote percentage published?

What did he win by?

[JackRiddler]

19. What an omission, given the story.

all election coverage in the US is incredibly dumbed down, and you are identifying one of the most important elements. They can write a whole story telling you the significance without ever giving the actual data.

It was 52-48 with allegedly all votes counted by earlier today.

Here
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18125736/georgia-secretary-state-election-live-results-barrow-raffensperger

Given the overall story here, as tainted as all the other Georgia results.

[Politicub]

18. Lazy voters

Turnout yesterday was abysmal. At my polling place, there was a handful of voters, and most of them were senior citizens.

One thing that was heartening was that there was a poll observer. I have never encountered one in Georgia before.

[JackRiddler]

20. Who can know?

They just fixed the elections and got a reward for it.