A Senate committee Tuesday approved a bill that would allow the State Election Board to investigate Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — a move that could further strain the independence of his office.
Senate Bill 358 also would remove Raffensperger as a nonvoting member of the election board. The move follows lawmakers’ 2021 decision to remove Raffensperger as chairman of the board that oversees elections in Georgia.
Raffensperger has blasted the latest proposal as a “complete and total lapse of judgment.” And on Tuesday his general counsel wrote a letter saying the bill would violate the Georgia Constitution by allowing “unelected bureaucrats unchecked power over the state’s executive branch” and could lead to illegal election interference.
“This authority could easily be weaponized by political activists seeking to use the State Election Board to punish political opponents or prevent the lawful certification of election results, harming the integrity of Georgia’s elections,” General Counsel Charlene McGowan wrote in a letter to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania.
Burns disputed the contention that his bill is unconstitutional or intended to interfere in elections.
“We’re not out there on a witch hunt looking for problems,” Burns said during a hearing of the Senate Ethics Committee, which he chairs. “We’re trying to provide reasonable oversight of a process that affects every citizen of Georgia.”
Raffensperger has been a target of some Republicans since his handling of the 2020 presidential election, in which he defended the integrity of the results against then-President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was rigged.
The State Election Board recently declined to investigate Raffensperger for his handling of the 2020 election. But it voted unanimously to ask the General Assembly to clarify whether it had the authority to do so.
SB 358 would authorize the board to investigate the secretary of state’s office. It also would require Raffensperger to cooperate with such investigations.
The ethics committee also passed Senate Bill 355, which would prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting statewide — except as allowed by federal law for military and overseas voters.
Under ranked-choice voting, voters would fill out their ballots by choosing their second-choice candidate along with their top pick. Then, if a voter’s first choice doesn’t finish among the top two candidates, the vote for the second-choice candidate would be counted, avoiding the need for another election.
Supporters say ranked-choice voting eliminates expensive runoff elections and increases voter participation. Critics say it’s a confusing system that has allowed candidates with low initial vote totals to ultimately prevail.
The bills now go to the Senate Rules Committee, which will determine whether they get floor votes.
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