ATLANTA — The debate over Georgia’s 2020 election data lasted for hours at the Gold Dome following an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections Office and an ongoing lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department is suing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for failing to turn over the state’s unredacted voter list, which includes personal information for more than eight million voters. The department says it wants the records to check accuracy and has made similar requests nationwide.
After roughly two hours of debate, Georgia Senate Republicans approved a resolution urging Raffensperger to cooperate with the Justice Department. The resolution carries no legal weight and does not compel action.
“It’s somewhat astounding, I think, that they would even introduce this,” he said.
Raffensperger says the resolution asks him to violate state law by releasing confidential voter information.
“For them to introduce and want to pass a resolution for us to violate the law, these are supposed to be lawmakers not lawbreakers,” Raffensperger said.
The secretary of state’s office previously provided the Justice Department with a redacted version of the voter list that excluded sensitive information. Raffensperger says state law bars his office from releasing full records that include Social Security numbers, birth dates, and driver’s license numbers.
“And state law is very clear that we are not allowed to turnover the voters’ complete social security number, day-month-year of your birth, so you have all of that information and your full name, plus your full driver’s license,” Raffensperger said.
He says the issue will be decided in federal court.
“We’ll bring this before the federal court and that judge will decide these issues, and we believe that we stand on the rule of law,” Raffensperger said.
“This office will not violate state law,” he added. “Our job is to do our job, that is to follow the law, follow the constitution,” Raffensperger said.
The renewed attention comes after last week’s FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections Office, where agents seized truckloads of ballots tied to the 2020 election. Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. told CNN that agents did not provide an exact inventory of what was taken.
“The only way to preserve the chain of custody would have been for that inventory to occur at the time of the transfer,” Arrington said.
“We’re also going to ask for the records to come back to Georgia. We believe that those records should be here and there is no reason that they should be in Virginia,” he added.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Raffensperger is part of a nationwide effort to obtain voter records, with requests sent to at least 44 states. Raffensperger says the case will ultimately be decided by a federal judge.
WSB Radio’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story.
