Georgia GOP rigs primary by refusing to list anyone but Trump on the ballot

Georgia Republicans announced Monday that Donald Trump would be the only name to appear on the GOP primary ballot in the state. The decision comes even as former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) and former governor Bill Weld (R-MA) submitted their names to the Georgia Republican Party to appear on the ballot.

Trump was the only candidate with any significant level of support among Republican voters in Georgia, the Georgia GOP said in a press release.

“[Georgia GOP Chair David Schaffer] also said the vote to list his name on the ballot was unanimous,” the party claimed.

Calling Trump a “vulnerable criminal,” Walsh lambasted the decision Monday afternoon. Walsh criticized state GOP officials for “disenfranchising Georgia voters” adding that the decision was “despicable and un-American.”

“Is the #GAGOP so scared they have to protect him from the ‘significant support’ they say he’d have in a contested primary?” Walsh wrote.

Trump’s actions with regard to Ukraine are currently at the center of a House impeachment inquiry. Multiple officials who testified both behind closed doors and publicly have stated to the House Intelligence Committee that Trump withheld $400 million in military aid to Ukraine and dangled the possibility of a crucial White House visit in order to pressure the country to launch investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the Democratic National Committee.

Accepting or soliciting election help from a foreign national is illegal according to the Federal Election Commission.

Georgia joins a litany of other states making moves to protect Trump’s reelection chances by rigging the primary process. Some states like Arizona, Kansas, South Carolina, and Nevada have canceled their nominating contests altogether, leaving voters with no option other than supporting Trump.

In October, Minnesota used a similar strategy to Georgia, limiting the ballot options to only Trump. In Minnesota, voters will not even have the option of writing in other candidates.

It is unclear if Georgia voters will have the option to write in candidates. The Georgia Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Michigan Republican Party earlier this year changed the rules of how state delegates are selected, awarding all the state’s delegates to any candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote total. The changes “all but assur[e] its delegates will go to President Donald Trump and not his long-shot GOP challengers,” MLive reported at the time of the change.

Democrats are engaged in a wide-open primary with more than a dozen candidates vying for the party’s nomination. Biden leads in national polling, while Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, leads the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to hold nominating contests.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.