Georgia First Calls for Critical Steps Toward Preserving Election Integrity in Georgia
Natalie Crawford, Founder & Executive Director of Georgia First and Chair of the BRIDGE Georgia coalition, released the following statement today:
“This week, an unsealed affidavit revealed that the search warrant that led to federal agents seizing ballots and other election-related records from the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections relied on widely debunked claims about the 2020 election.
Georgia First knows that the principle of free and fair elections demands our state and nation responsibly guard election integrity, which is built upon safety, security, and accessibility.
With these values top of mind, Georgia First has filed an amicus curiae brief calling on the Court to grant the motion to return all materials — including ballots — to the Fulton County election office. If all materials are not immediately returned, Georgia First urged the Court to amend its warrant and issue a protective order to protect the integrity of the ballots. These steps are imperative to preserving public confidence in the elections process; without them, voters may become subject to unwarranted scrutiny or misuse of their personal information — which would threaten the secure, free, and fair electoral process that serves as a foundation for our democracy itself. While the unsealing of the search warrant affidavit was an important step toward transparency, its contents further underscored why these actions are necessary.
We believe that people must always come before politics throughout Georgia and the United States. This means protecting voter privacy and maintaining the integrity of election records. The recent actions of the federal government in Georgia related to an election conducted more than five years ago — which was followed by multiple audits, recounts, investigations, and judicial proceedings that determined it was secure and its results reliable — do little to “put people first,” and instead raise significant federalism concerns while implicating the individual rights of voters.”
The seizure of Fulton County’s voting records is an illegal attempt by a corrupt federal administration to construct a “fraudulent” election outcome—which went through three separate audits by Georgia’s Secretary of State Raffensperger, who confirmed that the ballot count was legitimate and accurate, without “fraud.” The purpose of this seizure was clearly an attempt by the Trump regime to sow doubt among U.S. citizens about the legitimacy of U.S. elections in preparation for an illegal and corrupt takeover of the midterm election coming in November. Thanks to Georgia First for shining a bright light of truth on this flagrant attempt at voter suppression.