Bipartisan group of former leaders aims to rebuild trust in elections

Four former Georgia politicians, Republicans and Democrats, are working together to rebuild confidence in our elections. Two governors — Democrat Roy Barnes and Republican Nathan Deal — Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, and Democratic Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin have joined the Democracy Defense Project, an organization meant to “defend the transparency, safety, security, and validity of our nation’s electoral system.” Chambliss spoke with GPB’s Peter Biello. 

Peter Biello: Tell us, what in your view is the best way to convince people that our elections are free and fair and safe?

Saxby Chambliss: We can remind them that they really have been. There have been attacks against the electoral process in Georgia over the last several cycles. It's not something new that just came about in 2020. Certainly it had a crescendo in 2020, but there were previous other allegations of — of fraud and instances of influence on the electoral process in Georgia. Every time, Peter, those issues were raised, they were responded to — sometimes going all the way to the courtroom — and every time they were found to be not true. Or certainly not to the point that they really influenced the outcome of the of the election.

Peter Biello: And when you say instances raised, you're referring to instances raised by both the politicians who were running in those races and constituents who had concerns about the ballots they cast or tried to cast.

Saxby Chambliss: Yeah, exactly. I mean, specifically, obviously, 2020, the Trump campaign made specific allegations about improprieties and whatnot. The same thing happened in 2018 in our gubernatorial race here by the Democrat who lost. In both instances, they were just found to be incorrect allegations.

Peter Biello: You were referring to Stacey Abrams there. When politicians have concerns about the way elections are conducted, is there a way they can talk about that without damaging the public's trust in the system as a whole? And if so, how would you describe that way?

Saxby Chambliss: It's difficult for a loser to make allegations about the process without really getting the feelings of her or his supporters that they're correct. Particularly, Peter, now, we have social media that is blasting out untruths from time to time, including in the electoral process. And there's no way to refute that. So I'm not sure that there's a way that the loser can say negative things without influencing the — the supporters of that individual, and who would come to the conclusion that there was something was wrong. So, yeah, it's pretty difficult.

Peter Biello: Does that then put your group in kind of an informal arbiter position? In other words, if a candidate from any party has a complaint about the election, you could be a voice to say, "No, that that doesn't make sense, what you're saying." Or you could say, "Actually, you have a point. We as a society, as as a state, need to do something about that." Is that a role that your group is prepared to play?

Saxby Chambliss: We are. Yes. I mean, we're not going to be — We're no official in the electoral process. We're not going to be looking over everybody's shoulder to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to. But if situations arise and allegations are made, then we will be ... I won't say "an arbiter." but we will be looking at the facts as we see them and giving our opinion based upon the many years of experience the four of us have in the electoral process as to whether or not those allegations have some merit or not.

Peter Biello: Another thing that your group hopes to accomplish is raise voter participation. How do you hope to do that?

Saxby Chambliss: We — when we look back at the history [of] the voter participation in Georgia, we've — we're starting to get an increase in voter participation. And we'll remind people about the fact that Americans, particularly in our case, Georgians, have put blood on the battlefield to give us this right that we have to cast our vote for or against any issue or candidate. That's something that you don't find in other countries as a wholesale. You need to be proud of the fact that you have the opportunity to cast a ballot to an individual who is running for public office, and we hope that you will do that.

Peter Biello: How will you measure the success of your group and its mission to promote the integrity of the elections and to get more people to participate?

Saxby Chambliss: As — as I talked about, the fact that we're not going to be looking over the shoulders of individuals who are at the polling places. But if any irregularities that come about during the the process of signing up to qualify for as a voter or if during the, for example, in the early voting period, if some irregularities are raised — are raised by individuals and we decide that among ourselves that "yeah, that's probably got something that we need to take a look at that." And we need to make sure on the Secretary of State's side, that somebody [is] investigating in that. And there are — there are appropriate measures that candidates can be involved in that type of process. That's not going to be something that we are going to decide. It needs to be done by the individuals who are authorized by law. But we will make sure that people who think that they are unfairly treated somehow in the process, that their voice will be heard.