Absentee ballot task force works to protect integrity of June 9 election

(WALB) - Georgia’s Presidential Preference Primary, General Primary Election, Nonpartisan General Election and Special Election are a little over four weeks away, set for Tuesday, June 9.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office had mailed out more than one million absentee ballots to voters as of last Friday.

Raffensperger said he believes the opportunity to send in an absentee ballot has been received well by many Georgians.

However, with so many people voting this way, his office also established an Absentee Ballot Fraud Task Force, made up of experts in election administration, investigation, and prosecution from across the state.

He said he wants all Georgians to vote, but he wants them all to vote legally.

Raffensperger said it's important that the task force helps maintain the integrity of the elections to ensure all voters feel confident about the results.

"There's different penalties for people that you know, violate that, knowingly voting for people that are dead, knowingly breaking the law and trying to cheat the system," he explained. "We want fair, honest elections. Let the winner be the winner, and let the loser be the loser, and accept the results, but don't be trying to game the system."

Raffensperger said the task force will investigate any ballots that look "peculiar" along with reports of possible voter fraud.

The Secretary of State’s office said you can track the status of your absentee ballot on the state’s “My Voter Page.”

Early in-person voting runs from Monday, May 18 through Friday, June 5.

Voters can find the exact times and locations for advanced in-person voting on the “My Voter Page” as well.

When it comes to the absentee ballot drop boxes that the Secretary of State's office has implemented, there are several precautions to protect those votes.

“They have to be under video surveillance, and they have to be secured, chained to the ground, so to speak, so that they just can’t be carted off,” Raffensperger explained. “That’s what other states have done that have used drop boxes.”

Raffensperger says the counties have been proactive about protecting the drop boxes as well.

He said that they will likely have one at their county election office, but they might have drop boxes in multiple locations if the county is rather large.

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