Raffensperger speaks out against proposed federal voting legislation ahead of visit from Biden, Harris

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) on Sunday spoke out against measures included in proposed federal voting rights legislation ahead of a visit from President Biden and Vice President Harris to his state to campaign for those very laws.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Raffensperger praised Georgia’s current voting laws and suggested that a constitutional amendment be made stipulating that only American citizens be permitted to vote in elections, pointing to cities such as New York City that have recently moved to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.

“So that’s another, you know, solid commonsense federal reform measure if they really want to get serious about election reform,” Raffensperger said, appearing to refer to Biden and Harris.

Host Margaret Brennan pointed out that one of the bills Biden and Harris are promoting — the Freedom to Vote Act — promotes “a national standard for states that have an ID requirement for in-person voting. You could use a bank statement or utility bill.”

“It does not have photo ID, and photo ID is the most secure way of … making sure that you can identify who the voter is, and I think that’s very important,” Raffensperger said. “And then they also want same-day registration, and that’s just, you know, pretty difficult for any election official to manage. And I think that undermines trust in elections.”

Brennan also noted Georgia’s history of racial discrimination and how federal oversight was required when changing election laws in the state until 2013. She asked Raffensperger if he saw any merit in requiring federal oversight in states with a history of racial discrimination.

“Georgia was so far ahead. We’re not where we were in 1965,” he said. “I think that we have shown that Georgia has fair and honest elections. We have record registration. We have record turnout. Anyone that wants to vote in Georgia has tremendous opportunities to vote early, vote with no-excuse absentee voting with photo ID and then also show up on Election Day.”