Last week, two households far from Georgia—one in Oregon, the other in New Jersey—received the same mailing with pro-Trump messages, glossy Trump photos, and a Georgia absentee ballot request form. The mailer is shown as paid for by the Georgia Republican Party.
Brian Richardson, who received the absentee ballot request form in Oregon, moved from Georgia in 2019 and is now registered to vote in Oregon; the mailing he received was addressed to the “Richardson household or current resident.” The form that went to the New Jersey recipients, who prefer to remain anonymous, was also addressed to their “household” or “current resident.” They say they have never lived in Georgia.
The mailer declares, “The Best Is Yet to Come,” above Trump’s smiling visage, and advises recipients in multiple spots to “fill out one of the attached Absentee Ballot Request forms.” Instructions on the mailer detail how to ensure the request is filled out correctly.
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Although mailings of unsolicited Georgia ballot request forms from the state GOP have been previously reported as going to residents in Georgia, these are the first reports of such forms being mailed out of state. President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the reliability of mail-in voting. He may need to take a close look at one potential source of problems—his own party.
Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger mailed out almost seven million absentee ballot request forms for the state’s June primary, but decided against mailing out forms for the general election, leaving it up to individual voters to request them or nongovernmental groups to mail them out. Two left-leaning groups, the Center for Voter Information and the Voter Participation Center, have distributed 2.2 million absentee ballot applications, mostly to voters of color, unmarried women, and young people. Georgia makes its state voter list available for purchase.
But nothing in state law can prevent a political party or other group from also mailing absentee ballot request forms to people on other lists, without rigorously checking their names and addresses against the state’s list of registered voters. Apparently, that was what the Georgia Republican Party did.
The result could conceivably be unregistered voters seeking Georgia absentee ballots, or formerly registered Georgia voters getting an absentee ballot from that state while also being registered in another. More likely, the mass mailing will just create confusion. While it’s logical that out-of-state voters still on the Georgia rolls might want an absentee ballot, sending ballot requests to people with no connection to the state could raise suspicions about the process.
The party’s spokesman has not responded to questions about the mailings.
On Monday, District Court Judge Eleanor Ross denied a request from the New Georgia Project to order the state to mail absentee ballot requests to registered voters and provide free ballot postage. Judge Ross did, however, grant a request that all ballots postmarked by Election Day be counted. The New Georgia Project is a nonpartisan voter registration and civic action organization.
According to The New York Times, nine states and the District of Columbia are sending ballots to most voters automatically. The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits to block expanded mail-in voting in several states.
Since Georgia’s Secretary of State Raffensperger mailed absentee ballot request forms automatically for the June primary, many voters may expect an official form to arrive for the general election without any action on their part. Differences in the distribution of those ballot applications could clearly skew the general-election results.
Raffensperger succeeded Brian Kemp, who controlled election procedures in 2018 while he was narrowly elected Georgia’s governor. In the run-up to the election, Kemp undertook a massive purge of the voting rolls, suspending voters’ registration if the information they entered on the registration form was not an “exact match” with driver’s license and Social Security records.
“Exact matches” with voter registration records, however, do not seem to be a requirement for the Georgia Republican Party’s mailing of absentee ballot applications.
