Secretary Raffensperger Announces Safe, Secure, and Accessible Elections Task Force
Georgia Chamber President and CEO Chris Clark joins host of state leaders named to this effort
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is forming a bipartisan task force to improve elections in Georgia. The Georgia Bipartisan Task Force for Safe, Secure, and Accessible Elections will meet weekly between now and the end of the year to further the discussion on the election this fall and to address the challenges in election administration.
“As Secretary of State, I want to work to always keep Georgia voters as the focal point of all of our elections here,” said Raffensperger. “I am grateful that these leaders, from various professional and ideological backgrounds, are coming together to help meet that goal. Not just for this election, or the next, but for elections in years to come. Improving the integrity of our elections and increasing voter confidence in their outcomes is vital.”
Secretary Raffensperger has called together a bipartisan group of leaders in the political, civic, and educational spaces to meet weekly and discuss the ways elections processes can be enhanced moving forward. The Secretary will solicit the task force members for innovative ideas to build on the nation leading ballot access options provided in the Peach State, including no excuse absentee ballot voting by mail or through a secure drop box, gold-standard three weeks of early voting, and Election Day voting.
Georgia Chamber President and CEO Chris Clark was one of 16 initial leaders asked to serve on this task force for Georgia’s elections.
“My upbringing taught me the importance of the vote; that it is a privilege that should be regularly exercised at every opportunity,” said Chris Clark, President & CEO of the Georgia Chamber. “To have the opportunity to serve on a task force dedicated to making this privilege safer, more secure, and easier for more Georgians to participate in, is a true honor. I am grateful to Secretary Raffensperger for his vision to create this task force and his decision to include Georgia’s business community in the execution of a critical next-step for the New Georgia Economy.”
Other confirmed leaders on the Georgia Bipartisan Task Force for Safe, Secure, and Accessible Elections include:
- Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
- Ambassador Andrew Young
- Rev. James Woodall, State President, Georgia NAACP
- Paige Alexander, The Carter Center, Chief Executive Officer
- Vasu Abhirman, ACLU of Georgia, Policy Counsel
- Professor Angelos Keromytis, Georgia Institute of Technology
- David Becker, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Election Innovation and Research
- Jake Evans, Chairman, Republican National Lawyers Association Georgia
- Joseph Kirk, Elections Supervisor, Bartow County
- Erica Hamilton, Director of Voter Registration and Elections
- Janine Eveler, Director of Elections and Registration, Cobb County
- Rick Barron, Elections Director, Fulton County
- Monica Childers, VotingWorks
- Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger
- Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs
Additional participants may be added in the future. Resources for information on voting can be found at www.securevotega.com and www.gasupportthevote.org.
Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 16 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record primary turnout in 2020, with over 1.1 million absentee by mail voters and over 1.2 million in-person voters utilizing Georgia’s new, secure, paper ballot voting system.