As a result of the recent meeting of the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections, we now know that a group in Texas came up with a scheme to file voter eligibility challenges to 364,541 Georgia voters in all 159 counties in the midst of this Runoff Election, including 8000 in Athens-Clarke County. In order to file the complaint in Athens-Clarke County, the Texas organization had to find a resident of Athens-Clarke County willing to file this challenge. The Chairman of the Athens Republican Party did so.
Fortunately, the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections, after receiving the advice of legal counsel, rejected these baseless claims. If they had not done so, 8000 of our fellow Athens-Clark County voters, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, could have found their rights to cast votes in this runoff election and to have those votes counted without question placed at serious risk.
Baseless attacks on the voters in Athens-Clarke County and throughout Georgia will continue unless ways are found to deter them.
Consideration must be given to imposing severe civil and/or criminal sanctions upon those who flagrantly attempt to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters in the midst of elections by the filing of spurious claims.
Those who lodge groundless attacks on massive numbers of Georgia voters while an election is being conducted would then do so with the full knowledge that when, not if, their efforts failed, they would be held to legal account for their actions.
Bruce Menke
Athens