What’s Happening in Georgia Could Impact Every American

In just over two weeks, America will hold its next national election. In fact, all the action is taking place in a single state – Georgia – but the implications of that state’s election are national, truly impacting every American.

Georgia is unique because of a convergence of three factors: (1) it was the only state for which both U.S. Senate seats were up for election in 2020, (2) in neither of those races did any candidate emerge with more than 50% of the vote, and (3) the state passed a law in the 1960s requiring a runoff election in races in which no candidate receives a majority. As a result, on January 5, 2021, both U.S. Senate seats from the state of Georgia are at stake in a runoff election.

This is truly a national election because control of the United States Senate hangs in the balance. Because of the current makeup of the Senate, this runoff election will essentially determine the Senate majority (including the Majority Leader, committee makeup, confirmation of judges, and even what legislation comes to the floor for a vote).

As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared, “Now we take Georgia, then we change the world.”

At the ACLJ, we are deeply concerned that many of the same systemic flaws that have led to a national loss of confidence in our ability to hold free and fair elections remain in play in these pivotal U.S. Senate races. More than a million mail-in ballots have already been requested for Georgia’s runoff elections. America has already seen the chaos created by massive mail-in voting. So it’s not surprising that, as we’ve reported, there already are concerns of registration fraud being encouraged and facilitated by multiple groups. With so much at stake, Georgia is preparing for elections that are already facing reliability questions. And these elections could also enable a giant leap forward in further compromising free and fair elections in the future.

Depending on the results, election integrity could be a thing of the past.  The Left has already made clear: “With a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, a Biden Administration could hope to pass more progressive legislation on a range of priorities, starting with a pledge to expand voting rights legislation . . .”(emphasis added).

Voting rights is a noble ideal and a worthy goal. But, like so many other noble ideals, the phrase has been hijacked to mean its exact opposite. Rather than protect and promote the sanctity, security, and significance of Americans’ votes, “voting rights” is now the label given to every scheme to lessen security, create chaos, encourage fraud, and throw open access to those ineligible to vote – including non-citizens.

So much is at stake now in Georgia, for the nation, and in the fight for vote security and vote integrity. Thanks to your generous support, the ACLJ’s lawyers remain fully engaged, fighting to make sure that free and fair elections are not just a distant memory.