Hundreds of activists gathered at the steps of the Georgia State Capitol Saturday afternoon for the “Stop the Steal” rally protesting the way the presidential election vote count has been handled. Trump supporters expressed their dismay with a trait Establishment Republicans and RINOs have disappointed us with many times before when it’s come to so many issues we’ve found within our grasp to resolve: too often they are more enamored with their power or prestige to take the football all the way into the end zone! We’ve seen it over the last 50 years with a whole variety of issues.
From the fight to save the lives of the pre-born, to the crusade to cut spending and reduce the federal deficit, to issues involving everything from gun rights to school choice Establishment Republicans have too often demonstrated themselves to be more talk than walk. That is exactly why the Georgia Republican Assembly, and its local affiliate organizations such as the Cobb County Republican Assembly, exist—to transform the party to stand for what it claims it actually stands for!
Democrats do not lack the courage to push for their professed policies even when it means sometimes taking a personal or short-term loss to obtain a long-term advancement of principles. Think back to how the Democrat-controlled Congress and President Obama pushed through the highly controversial “Obamacare” legislation back in 2010. As a result, the Democrats lost control of Congress later that year, but the fear of that loss did not deter them from taking advantage of their majority power while they had it.
Fast-forward to 2016 when Republicans finally won control of the Presidency and both Houses of Congress. President Donald Trump let it be known he was willing to support a repeal of Obamacare, and Republicans had campaigned to repeal Obamacare for six years! But while they had it within their power to do it, they balked. They balked for fear of losing their power and their prestige. Under the pathetic leadership of Speaker Paul Ryan, who turned out to not be much of any improvement to John Boehner, the Republican Congress missed one opportunity after another to implement real change. The result? The very thing they feared came true! After only two years, they lost the very thing their inaction was trying to preserve: their majority in the House of Representatives.
When will Republicans learn their lesson? Secretary of State Raffensberger (who President Trump called a “RINO” in his recent Tweets) has been the greatest disappointment for this latest episode. Raffensberger implemented a recount of the vote from November 3rd, but how is any audited recount really meaningful when only one monitor is allowed for every ten tables of vote counters? That is absolutely ridiculous! No monitor is reasonably able to simultaneously look over the shoulder of ten people and ensure they are counting the vote accurately.
Raffensberger should have known better especially since his own election was so very close two years ago. At the time in 2018, Republicans specifically rallied to help push him over the top in his runoff because they knew he’d be overseeing the presidential election this year in 2020 and wanted to make sure a Republican and not a Democrat was responsible to ensure the vote was counted honestly. Apparently, that purpose was lost on him.
Opening the doors to a wide-array of potential abuse regarding absentee ballots appears to have been another blunder by Secretary Raffensberger. According to attorney Lin Wood, back in March of this year Secretary Raffensberger changed the rules to make it easier for absentee ballots to be submitted without verification—a subject matter that is the sole domain of the Georgia General Assembly. Only the Georgia state legislature has authority over how elections are to be conducted in our state, and that body did not approve of this change by Secretary of State Raffensberger.
In Cobb County one woman signed a notarized affidavit testifying how she discovered that her 65-year-old son with dementia living in a nursing home in Austell had voted absentee unbeknownst to her and her entire family. Since she has legal Power of Attorney over her son, no absentee ballot for him
should have been capable of being requested on his behalf without her awareness and approval. The family has been disallowed from seeing him for the last eight months due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. They were alarmed to have checked the “My Voter” Secretary of State’s web page and learn that an absentee ballot had been cast on his behalf without her knowledge. This is the tip of the iceberg on how the absentee ballot system can by abused. What if thousands of unaware seniors with similar mental incapacity in nursing homes are having their ballots harvested by Democrat activists working in nursing homes? Such cases demand investigation prior to finalization of the election results, and the laws concerning the absentee voting system must be revised to require voter verification.
This says nothing, of course, of the alleged concerns regarding the electronic voting system from Dominion.
If you’re unhappy with how Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger has been handling the vote count in Georgia, don’t forget that the Georgia Republican Assembly endorsed Brad’s opponent Josh McKoon in the Republican primary two years ago! Hate to say, “We told you so!” but if Josh had been elected instead of Brad, we would probably not be experiencing this mess right now.
Have you joined the GRA yet? Find out how you can join our membership to make a difference in the Republican Party here! We can’t wait to have you join us on the front-lines of the political battle. Together, we are going to make the Ol’ Party a “Grand Ol’ Party” again!
