by Catherine Smith
The Georgia Secretary of State announced Tuesday that about 1,000 Georgians face investigation for voting twice in the state’s June 9 primary, and 58 percent of them were cast for Democrats. A Georgia voter must request a specific party ballot in the primary election.
“While the investigation is still ongoing, initial results show that of the partisan ballots at issue, approximately 58% were Democratic ballots,” a spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Breitbart News.
Raffensperger’s office said that voting twice is a felony and those accused would be vigorously prosecuted. “And as secretary of state, I will not tolerate it.” Double-voting is punishable by one to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $100,000.
Georgia residents cast votes by absentee ballot and then went in person to polling places on June 9 and voted again, Raffensperger said. Many double-voters are able to be stopped, but county election officials “weren’t able to catch everyone,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
“A double voter knows exactly what they’re doing, diluting the votes of each and every voter that follows the law,” Raffensperger said. “Those that make the choice to game the system are breaking the law. And as secretary of state, I will not tolerate it.”
According to the paper, about 150,000 Georgians requested absentee ballots and showed up at polling places on election day, often because they never received their absentee ballots in the mail or decided to instead vote in person.
Most of them were intercepted, but 1,000 double-voted.
Raffensperger said in past elections, absentee ballots accounted for five percent of all ballots. In the June primary election, 50 percent of votes were mailed in.
One voter, Hamilton Evans admitted he intentionally voted twice to show it could be done. The voter told Fox 5 Atlanta last week that he wanted “to prove a point.”
“It’s not set up right,” Evans said. “If I did it, how many other people did it?”
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Catherine Smith reports for American Greatness.
Photo “File:SecretaryRaffenspergerOfficialPhoto (cropped).jpg” by Caitelizabeth5CC4.0 and “Governor Votes Early” by MDGovpics CC 2.0
