Georgia Law Dangerously Pays Tribute to the “Big Lie” - Horowitz

Georgia Law Dangerously Pays Tribute to the “Big Lie” - Horowitz

In the heated back and forth over the degree to which the new Georgia law makes it more difficult to vote, its most dangerous provision has not received the attention that it deserves. Simply put, the new law takes power away from the secretary of state and gives it to the Republican-controlled state legislature, making a partisan effort to overturn the results of a close election easier to pull off.  As Nate Cohn put it, “the new Georgia law risks making election subversion easier.”

More specifically, the new law replaces current Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who is independently elected by the public, as chair of the State Election Board with a chair appointed by the state legislature. The secretary of state is also stripped of his voting power; the majority of the voting members of the board will now be legislative appointees.

It then gives this reconstituted partisan state election board new powers, enabling it to replace bi-partisan county election boards that it deems as performing poorly with an election administrator that it selects.  In Georgia, county election boards have primary responsibility for vote counting and election administration in their areas of jurisdiction.  As Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine told Vox. “One of the worst aspects of the bill is the part making election administration even more partisan. That’s a move in exactly the wrong direction.”

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And these disturbing changes were not made in a vacuum. The new Georgia law substantially reduces the power of the state official who stood in the way of President Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the election by any means necessary.  Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger received death threats and was unfairly pilloried by some of his fellow Republican elected officials as he courageously defended the fairness of the Georgia election process and calmly rejected the then president’s many false and outrageous claims.

At the same time, the law increases the power of the state legislature, the entity in Georgia and in other states to which he was contesting the results that President Trump was pressuring to overturn the results of the election, insisting that they substitute their judgment for the will of the people of their states in acts that would have been profoundly undemocratic.

On January 6, Georgia state legislators, along with the rest of us, witnessed the consequences of President Trump’s reckless and desperate effort to cling to power, despite losing the election. His despicable actions were aptly summed up by Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president, "said the Senate Republican Leader. “And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.  Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

Yet, in the wake of all the damage done by what is now accurately referred to as “The Big Lie,”, Georgia has passed a law that pays tribute to it, making it easier for a future president or presidential candidate to undermine the will of the people. And there are other states with Republican-controlled state legislatures poised to follow Georgia’s lead

Going on television and calling this “restoring election integrity” gives chutzpah a whole new meaning.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.