Georgia: Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions

View the entire Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions series

Below, we compile quotes from campaigns’ ads, websites, social media posts, and statements reported in the media that illustrate endorsement or opposition to election denial — claims that the process or result of the last presidential election was illegitimate. Each of the candidates is running for an office that will play a role in administering future elections in Georgia. Information about the financing of these campaigns and those in other battleground states can be found here.

Governor

Catherine Davis (lost primary)

The campaign website of nonprofit executive Catherine Davis (R) features claims about a "barrage of anomalies including allegations of ballot harvesting, dead people voting, underage teens voting, [and] chain of custody violations,” and a plan to “steal the electoral college votes.”

In public remarks posted on Davis’s campaign Facebook page, she claimed that “drop boxes is how they stole the election,” and said she saw election workers “pull the ballots from underneath the table,” a reference to a disproven claim about vote counting in Fulton County.

Brian Kemp (won primary)

Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has defen­ded himself and the 2020 results against elec­tion denial attacks and said, “I believe Joe Biden is the pres­id­ent of the United States. The elec­tion got certi­fied. There’s noth­ing anybody can do about that.” He has touted his role enact­ing a voting bill called the Elec­tion Integ­rity Act.

David Perdue (lost primary)

In the governor’s race, Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R), began his open­ing state­ment in an April debate by saying: “First off, folks, let me be very clear tonight, the elec­tion in 2020 was rigged and stolen.” Perdue, who lost his bid for reelec­tion to the Senate in the 2020 elec­tion cycle, said: “In my elec­tion and the pres­id­ent’s elec­tion, they were stolen. The evid­ence is compelling now.” He said he would not have certi­fied the 2020 elec­­­tion. After his campaign announce­­­ment, he joined a lawsuit seek­ing to show that there “were seri­ous viol­­­a­­­tions of Geor­­­­­gia law in the Fulton absentee ballot tabu­la­­­tion."

Vernon Jones (withdrew to run for Congress)

Campaign ads from the aborted gubernatorial campaign of former state repres­ent­at­ive Vernon Jones (R) prom­ise he will “author­ize a full statewide forensic audit of the 2020 pres­id­en­tial elec­tion.” Jones has said on Twit­ter, “If it weren’t for Brian Kemp, Donald Trump would still be Pres­id­ent of these United States.”

Kandiss Taylor (lost primary)

Educator Kandiss Taylor (R) said, “Arizona helped Geor­gia commit the voter fraud,” and she deman­ded that the governor conduct a “full forensic audit” in Fulton and Chatham Counties. In a January, she posted on Facebook that the Georgia election had potentially “over a million illegally harvested ballots! DECERTIFY GA NOW!”

Secretary of State

David Belle Isle (lost primary)

The former Mayor of Alpharetta, Georgia, David Belle Isle (R) has said that Georgia “certified the wrong result,” and that “I believe on statistics alone that Trump won Georgia.” He has released ads featuring parody versions of popular country songs with the lyrics changed to claim there was misconduct in the 2020 election. The lyrics of one, in part:

Well way down yonder deep in Fulton County

Ballot counting’s fish­ier than the Chattahoochee

You can hardly find a camera on a Geor­gia drop box

Might’ve been some cheatin’ but they never got caught

State Farm Arena on a Tues­day night

A pyramid of ballots in the pale moon­light

…

Well Fulton’s missin’ ballots and it’s causing trouble

Happy faces count Biden’s ballot double

John Eaves (lost primary)

John Eaves (D), who used to chair the Fulton County Board of Commis­sion­ers, posted on Face­book: “there is no indic­a­tion of fraud in last year’s elec­tion. The results still stand that after three ballot counts and multiple invest­ig­a­tions Demo­crat Joe Biden defeated Repub­lican incum­bent Donald Trump in Geor­gi­a’s pres­id­en­tial elec­tion by about 12,000 votes. It is time we move past the ‘big lie’ as it is a consist­ent waste of tax dollars.”

Jody Hice (lost primary)

Rep. Jody Hice (R) has said, “If we were to get an accurate count of the votes in Georgia, I believe absolutely Trump won Georgia.” In an April debate, Hice made repeated claims about fraud in 2020 and alleged that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made a “deal” with Stacey Abrams that lead to fraud. He has claimed that “700,000 people are illegal voters.” As a member of Congress, Hice voted against certi­fy­ing Biden’s victory.

Bee Nguyen (won primary)

State Rep. Bee Nguyen (D) has made her oppos­i­tion to elec­tion denial cent­ral to her campaign, describ­ing her fear of “a secret­ary of state who is anti-demo­cratic and refuses to certify the results of the elec­tion.” In Decem­ber 2020, she debunked claims of ineligible voters from outside the state in a video that went viral. In an email to supporters, Nguyen attacked Jody Hice as “trying to decertify” the 2020 election and a “Big Lie promoter.” She wrote: “Imagine if the next person to oversee our elections literally called the results of the 2024 election into question if the outcome didn’t suit their party."

Brad Raffensperger (won primary)

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said in an April debate that Hice has been spreading “disinformation,” noting: “That’s what destroys voter confidence.” Raffen­sper­ger wrote a book, published in late 2021, called Integ­rity Counts, in which he defends the way he ran the 2020 elec­tion and decries the trend of candid­ates refus­ing to accept elec­tion results and rais­ing money on “unfoun­ded claims of fraud and corrup­tion.” In a Novem­ber 2021 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Raffen­sper­ger wrote, “I’m mostly known for stand­ing up for the integ­rity of Geor­gi­a’s Novem­ber 2020 elec­tions. I spent months debunking conspir­acy theor­ies, refut­ing lies about our voting proced­ures, and endur­ing threats because I refused to bend on the facts. . . . If Amer­ican demo­cracy is to survive, polit­ical figures of both parties need to aban­don stolen-elec­tion claims once and for all.”

Chatham County Board of Elections

Trish Brown (won primary)

Trish Brown (D), asked why she is seeking a seat on the board of elections, said: “We need people that are willing to fight against believers of the Big Lie.”

Robin Greco (lost primary)

Robin Greco (R) wrote in a Facebook post asking community members to place campaign signs: “I am running on Election Integrity and One And Done , which means You only get ONE VOTE ! We have got to Stop this Fraud.” In a speech to a local political group, Greco said, “citizens of Chatham County do not think that the election was fair.” She went on to say that the 2020 vote “should have been looked at differently, should have counted, should have had signatures, everything should have been verified.” In a pinned Facebook post, Greco wrote “We The People Can Not Stand for this!” about an article in which a state legislator states his lack of trust in Fulton County election administration, drop boxes, and signature matching protocols.

Jennifer Salandi (lost primary)

Since she qual­i­fied as a candid­ate for the board of elec­tions in March, Jennifer Salandi (R) has posted content on her Face­book page about “2000 Mules,” a movie claim­ing large numbers of people put false ballots in drop boxes. Other content Salandi has shared includ­es a video claim­ing Fulton County’s elec­tion results were “elec­tron­ic­ally manip­u­lated” and another stat­ing that dona­tions to fund elec­tion admin­is­tra­tion from Face­book CEO Mark Zuck­er­berg’s char­ity “changed the outcome of the 2020 pres­id­en­tial race.” She also shared a video from Steve Bannon’s show featur­ing claims of voting machine irreg­u­lar­it­ies in Mesa County, Color­ado.