A pro-Trump PAC that secured two hard-fought victories for election integrity in Georgia after the fateful November 2020 presidential election is gearing up to fight for election integrity in the 2022 elections.
The Committee to Defend the President — which changed its name to the Committee to Defeat the President after Joe Biden took office — mobilized in Georgia to ensure accountability and transparency for the absentee vote-counting process in the January runoff elections. The committee spent $250,000 for its “Suggest Program,” which exposed hidden ballot-counting and sparked election reform. The committee’s work led to certified observers gaining full access to ballot-counting regarding military absentee ballots, apparently a first in Georgia’s history.
The committee funded ground observation teams and litigation to sue election officials in Cobb and Fulton Counties to compel them to permit appointed ballot monitors to witness the counting. Officials in both counties submitted to consent decrees to this effect. Cobb County Board of Elections Director Janine Evelier announced she would resign after the January run-offs, while Fulton County’s elections board voted to fire Elections Director Rick Barron.
“When the Committee mobilized in Georgia, we witnessed all sorts of nefarious activities that are undemocratic,” Ted Harvey, chairman of the Committee to Defeat the President, told PJ Media. “Hidden ballot-counting was rampant, so we funded litigation against election officials in Cobb and Fulton counties. Because of our lawsuits, appointed ballot monitors were granted full access to observe electoral activities in the state, holding partisan bureaucrats accountable.”
“However, our work is far from done: To fight back against the radical Left’s assault on democracy, the Committee now pledges to expand its Georgia program for the 2022 election cycle, preserving electoral integrity in key districts across the country,” Harvey added.
The committee has pledged to fight for election integrity wherever it “may be under threat from the radical Left.” The PAC aims to expand its program across the country, securing consent decrees of the kind it won in Cobb and Fulton Counties.
In 2020, Biden won Cobb County by 56,387 votes (221,846 votes and 56.3 percent to Trump’s 165,459 votes and 42 percent). He won Fulton County by 243,904 votes (381,144 votes and 72.65 percent to Trump’s 137,240 votes and 26.2 percent). While both counties are left-leaning, in Cobb County, Biden won 62,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton did in 2016, and he won 100,000 more votes than Clinton in Fulton County. Trump picked up 13,000 in Cobb County and 27,000 in Fulton County.
If the committee can succeed in fighting for election integrity in these counties, it should be able to produce results elsewhere.
Given the Democrats’ attempts to undermine local election law and election integrity measures in H.R. 1, however, it seems the Committee to Defeat the President has its work cut out for it.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
