Officials slam Republican who threatened to vote illegally in Georgia

Georgia elections officials have said they are investigating a Florida attorney who said he was going to relocate to the Peach State to vote in the U.S. Senate runoff elections on Jan. 5.

GOP incumbent Sen. David Perdue faces opponent Democrat Jon Ossoff in the runoff; the other incumbent Georgia senator, Kelly Loeffler, is facing Democrat Raphael Warnock. No candidate won a majority in either race on Election Day, and the runoffs are the focus of national attention as control of the Senate hangs on their results.

Bill Price, speaking to the Bay County Republican Party on Nov. 7, said: “If we lose the Senate on Jan. 5 in Georgia, we will become Venezuela,” Fox News reported. According to WUSF Public Media, Price said: “We have to win that election in Georgia. And so I’m moving to my brother’s house in Hiram, Georgia, and I’m registering to vote.”

“I’m changing my voter registration right now, and I’m inviting two million people to be my roommates if they want. We’ll make room for you at the dinner table,” Price said.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office did not take Price’s announcement lightly. Walter Jones, a spokesperson for the office, told Fox: “Registering without the intention of permanent residency is a felony. Only permanent residents are eligible to vote in Georgia. Secretary Raffensperger has made it clear he has no tolerance for election wrongdoing and will investigate any credible evidence of it.”

Republican Deidre Holden, chair of the Board of Elections in Paulding County, Georgia, where Price claimed he would register, said: “An attorney should know better. This is fraud, especially after his speech on Facebook.”

Meanwhile, Debbie Wood, chair of the Bay County Republican Party, attended the meeting, WUSF reported, and said that Price “misspoke” about relocating temporarily to vote: “We only do things that are within the legal guidelines,” she said.

Raffensperger issued a warning last week to “out-of-state partisans seeking to vote in the Jan. 5 runoff election for Senate: Moving to the state with the sole purpose of voting and leaving is illegal and is considered voter fraud. … Let me be clear, those who come to Georgia with the intention of voter fraud will be prosecuted. We thoroughly investigate every single allegation of voter fraud.”

Raffensperger issued another statement warning groups against moving people to Georgia “solely for the purpose of voting in the January Senate runoffs elections.”

On Tuesday, Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling condemned lawmakers who had not said anything about calls for violence against people who resist attempts to interfere with elections. During a press conference, Sterling said: “It has all gone too far. All of it. … It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It’s too much.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.