Secretary of State Investigating 1,000 Cases Of Double Voting

ATLANTA – As the November general election approaches, Georgia’s Secretary of State is warning residents about the penalty for double-voting, a felony for which state investigators have examined about 1,000 cases of across the state since the June primary election.

In a news conference Tuesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he expects some 900,000 votes to be cast statewide in November’s election. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, however, up to 50 percent of voters across Georgia are expected to cast their ballots mail, which represents a serious uptick in absentee votes, which previously sat at just 5 percent prior to the pandemic, Raffensperger said.

However, thanks to a new election system state officials have been using, detecting how votes are cast and any potential violation of voting rules are much easier to detect. Between June elections and August run-offs, Raffensperger said Tuesday that his office has detected about the 1,000 cases of double-voting —a crime that comes with serious ramifications.

“Let me be clear, it is a felony to double-vote in Georgia,” Raffensperger said Tuesday. “And we prosecute. My office is dedicated, working with counties, to ensure it won’t happen in November or in the future.”

He added: “Let me reiterate this. Every double-voter will be investigated thoroughly. A double-voter knows exactly what they are doing – diluting the votes of each and every voter that follows the law…there are those who want to game the system and that can’t happen.”

Raffensperger said Tuesday that reports of double-voting first surfaced in Long County but that potential cases of double voting have mounted significantly over the two summer elections. While investigators continue to look into the nearly 1,000 cases it detected, Raffensperger more than once warned residents of the penalties that can arise if a person has double-voted.

In the cases detected by his office, Raffensperger said Tuesday that 1,000 people voted by mail and then showed up to vote in-person as well. The felony carries a penalty of 1-10 years in prison and up to a $100,000 fine. In each case found in Georgia, Raffensperger said that the violations were a result of the voter choosing to try to cheat the election process and not the process itself.

He said cases will be turned over to state, federal and local authorities to prosecute double-voters. In Long County, the voter in question bragged about the fact he voted twice, which launched the investigation by Raffensperger's office.

None of the double votes impacted the result of the election, Raffensperger said, but said that voting records determined that ballots had been cast twice.

“(Voters) knew what they were doing,” Raffensperger said. “…We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

In addition, Raffensperger announced that his office has put several safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of the election process including establishing an online absentee ballot request portal, lending support for absentee ballot drop boxes around the state and distributing personal protection equipment to election officials.

Asked Tuesday how he knew the 1,000 people had intentionally double-voted, Raffensperger indicated the investigation had provided evidence, but would not give further details. Out of the 150,000 absentee votes that were returned for the July and August elections, 1,000 ballots turned up as people who had voted twice and that each would be prosecuted, regardless of their reasoning.

“Intentionality is not an excuse under the law,” Raffensperger said.