Judicial Watch filed two lawsuits against Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, notes John J. Park, Jr., in a June 2021 article on Verdict, a news publication from Judicial Watch. The lawsuits refer to Georgia’s 2020 absentee ballot process and Trump telephone records. Park notes that Judicial Watch filed “two Georgia Open Records Act lawsuits […] for records related to:” A “March 6, 2020, consent agreement regarding the processing of absentee ballots in the November 3, 2020, general election (Judicial Watch v. Brad Raffensperger)” – No. 2021 cv 347236. The other lawsuit was for records related to: “The January 2, 2021, telephone call between Raffensperger and President Trump (Judicial Watch v. Brad Raffensperger)” – No. 2021 cv 347237.
The absentee ballot lawsuit was filed because Reffensperger “failed to respond to a November 17, 2020, request,” which read: “All records related to the March 6, 2020, Consent Agreement entered into by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and others relating to the processing of absentee ballots by the secretary of state in the November 3, 2020, general election, including but not limited to emails regarding the agreement sent to and from Reffensperger, State Election Board Vice-Chair Rebecca N. Sullivan, State Election Board member David J. Worley, State Election Board member Matthew Mashburn, and/or State Election Board member Anh Le.”
The Trump phone call lawsuit is for: “All emails sent to and from Secretary of State Raffensperger, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs and General Counsel Brian Germany regarding the January 2, 2021, telephone call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and others concerning alleged election fraud in Georgia.”
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s President, said: “We want to know more about what happened behind the scenes in Georgia during the 2020 election.”
Park notes in his article that Raffensperger, along with other Georgia officials, signed a decree that included the Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which some noted, “improperly weakened anti-fraud measures related to absentee ballots.”
Regarding Trump’s phone call, Park notes Raffensperger discussed voter fraud concerns with President Trump, then “Raffensperger’s office allegedly leaked a recording of the call to The Washington Post.” Fitton noted, “Hiding key records about the controversial settlement agreement and the president’s leaked phone call with Raffensperger prevents Americans from knowing the full story and deciding for themselves whether the outcome in Georgia was fair.”
In April of 2020, Judicial Watch shared data with Raffensperger’s office about thousands of non-residents of the State of Georgia that registered to vote, and demanded an investigation. In January 2021, Judicial Watch noted that, “of this list of voters who may have registered using nonresidential addresses, 4,700 voted absentee in the 2020 presidential election.” Per Georgia law, in order to register to vote, a person must reside “in that place in which such person’s habitation is fixed…”
