Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger expects to be subpoenaed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select House committee investigating the Jan. 6 incursion of the U.S. Capitol and says he will not comply.
“I’m focused on secure and accessible elections — not re-litigating the past, whether January 6th, the 2018 election, or the 2020 election,” Raffensperger said in a Thursday statement, according to Just the News.
“We aren’t participating in a partisan sideshow solely for the purpose of providing soundbites about an event we have no connection to,” the Republican added.
Raffensperger held post-election calls with then-President Donald Trump in which Trump urged Georgia’s leaders to investigate potential election fraud.
The Georgia secretary of state said these calls have already been made publicly available and have no connection with the events of Jan. 6.
Raffensperger has come under attack by Trump supporters as well.
Republican state Sen. Burt Jones, a Republican who serves on the Georgia Senate Government Oversight Committee, wanted committee Chairman Marty Harbin to summon Raffensperger to testify under oath in July, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
In the letter, Jones said the depth and breadth of allegations about the contest, and the revelation that nearly 200 ballots were scanned twice in Fulton County, meant the election could not simply be consigned to the past.
“Trusted, transparent, and secure elections are the bedrock of our democracy. As the head of our elections in Georgia, the buck stops with the Secretary of State, and our citizens deserve answers to these questions and to have their faith in our electoral process restored,” he wrote.
“I am confident that a thorough investigation of Secretary Raffensperger’s actions will provide the accountability and clarity surrounding the 2020 election that the citizens of this great state deserve.”
More recently, Raffensperger made headlines for efforts to change the Georgia Constitution to ensure noncitizens don’t vote in state elections. On Thursday, he signed a petition backing the constitutional amendment started by Americans for Citizen Voting.
“Only American citizens should be allowed to cast a ballot. We can’t run the risk that special interests one day succeed in giving non-citizens a say in our laws, taxes and representatives the way they have in other states,” Raffensperger said during a news briefing at the state Capitol, KPVI-TV reported.
“I have worked hard to ensure foreign elements cannot alter our elections through cyberterrorism, so I’m certainly opposed to letting them influence our elections through voting,” he added.
The petition arose following isolated reports that noncitizens were registered as voters in previous elections. The effort seeks to add more precise language to the state’s Constitution to exclude future incidents.
“Voting is a sacred responsibility for American citizens, and everyone should agree that only American citizens should vote,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
“I call on my fellow Georgia citizens to sign this petition and work with their legislators to get this amendment passed by the General Assembly and on the ballot.”
The online petition continues to collect signers at OnlyCitizens.Vote.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
