Lindsey Graham Takes his Election-Meddling on the Road

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

While the term "honorable Republican" may sound like an oxymoron and is obviously a political rarity, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certainly seems to be one.  Raffensperger, the chief elections officer for the Peach State, has come under increasing scorn from fellow Republicans for his failure to throw this month's presidential election to Donald Trump.  With all votes counted, Joe Biden has a 14,000 vote lead in the state, and a mandatory hand-recount is underway.  Raffensperger, for his part, expresses confidence in the original vote totals and publicly doubts that the recount will make much difference.

But the level of party pressure being applied to the Georgia Secretary of State is remarkable, and it seems to rooted in - or very close to - the White House.

Several days ago both of Georgia's United States senators called on Raffensberger to resign over what they  said were election irregularities - although they senators were noticeably light on specifics.  The incumbent senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, are each involved in run-off elections on January 5th which could end their political careers - and it would seem that pissing off the state's top election official might not be the smartest move they could make, but that's what they chose to do - in tandem.  (More than a few people familiar with Georgia politics have suggested that the senators may have been encouraged by Donald Trump or close associates of Trump to go after Raffensperger or risk some wrathful tweets from Trump that would interfere with their January run-offs.)

But Brad Raffensperger would not be bullied by a pair of United States senators, even if they were from his own state and his own political party.  He had run an honest election and he stood his ground.

So Team Trump coughed up another U.S. senator to run interference in the Georgia vote recount.  Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee and also a Republican, rang up the Georgia Secretary of State for a little chitchat.  Soon after that call concluded, Secretary of State Raffensperger contacted the Washington Post and reported that Senator Graham had encouraged him to throw out some legally cast absentee ballots in order to help Donald Trump carry Georgia.  

Senator Graham denied that he had asked Raffensperger to throw out any ballots, but he did admit asking about the subject of "signature matching."   Raffensperger said that Graham has asked about his ability to throw out ALL absentee ballots in counties that had higher rates of mismatching signatures.

Some are now wondering if Lindsey Graham has used his political clout to influence the election outcomes in other states, and there are even suggestions being made that perhaps Graham's own election victory in South Carolina two weeks ago should be questioned - and perhaps audited.

Attempting to use one's political stature to influence a vote count in a neighboring state almost sounds like a federal crime, doesn't it?  

Maybe a resignation is in order, Lindsey.