2026-10-21T18:16:13.945Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/politics/georgia-election-board-secretary-of-state-trump
佐治亚州惠特菲尔德县——
在为共和党候选人展开的全国竞选巡游中，总统唐纳德·特朗普上周前往了自称“世界地毯之都”的道尔顿市，并再次搬出了一则老套的谎言：佐治亚州过往选举存在舞弊。
在这个以制造业为主的乡村地区，民主进程正有序推进。超过900人涌入惠特菲尔德县法院——这无疑是提前投票首周该县最繁忙的一天。而在佐治亚州西北部这个深红区，负责监督选票的官员却传递了截然不同的信息。
惠特菲尔德县选举主任谢妮·布莱森告诉CNN，佐治亚州的选举是安全的，并将特朗普的言论称为“令人沮丧”。
“我们尽量不予理会，因为我们清楚真相，”布莱森说，“而且我们大多数选民也清楚真相。”
自2020年以来，选举不信任情绪在此地扎根，就像美国许多倾向共和党的地区一样。无党派身份的布莱森在一届又一届选举中都在驳斥虚假言论和阴谋论。
“我会说，‘你知道吗，我在很多观点上都和你一致。我为什么要舞弊，让另一位候选人当选呢？’”她说道。
布莱森担心选举紧张局势再次升温。本月，全美多地包括佐治亚州的选举和政治办公室收到了装有可疑白色粉末的信件，此后她的工作人员开始佩戴手套和口罩拆阅邮件。
“有时我会为选举日的工作人员感到担忧，”布莱森说，“这就是让我夜不能寐的原因。万一？万一发生什么事怎么办？”
几乎没有哪个州像佐治亚州这样背负着2020年大选留下的政治伤疤。特朗普及其盟友将该州作为他们挑战并推翻其败选结果的核心阵地。这场行动包括特朗普臭名昭著的电话，他敦促共和党州务卿布拉德·拉芬斯珀格“找出”足够多的票数来扭转选举结果。
自那以后，与特朗普结盟的佐治亚州选举委员会在一场“选举诚信”运动中变得更具影响力，也更具对抗性。该委员会推动了更严格的投票规则，同时对投票系统和选举结果提出质疑。
该委员会还多次攻击拉芬斯珀格，将他描绘成要么无力管理佐治亚州选举，要么不愿诚实地履行职责。
上月末，该委员会致信司法部，请求特朗普政府对佐治亚州的选举系统和投票机进行“干预”。这一请求加剧了人们的担忧：曾寻求加大联邦对选举控制权的特朗普，可能会对这个全美最受关注的战场州之一的中期选举采取激进举措。
特朗普及其盟友否认佐治亚州2020年选举结果的行为，成为针对他和十余名支持者的敲诈勒索指控的核心内容。经过多年调查、大陪审团程序、法庭博弈以及臭名昭著的富尔顿县 mugshot（入狱照）事件，这起案件最终因检方失误在进入庭审或正式审理前宣告终结。
今年1月，联邦调查局对亚特兰大郊外的富尔顿县选举仓库执行搜查令，带走了约700箱选举材料，以调查2020年总统大选所谓的投票欺诈行为。这场行动部分受到2020年选举怀疑论者的推动，遭到了拉芬斯珀格以及两党其他官员的尖锐批评。
“最糟糕的情况是：选举日当天，在计票开始前，他们前来没收选票，将其带走，”富尔顿县委员会主席罗布·皮茨告诉CNN，“从本届政府身上我学到，不可能的事总是可能发生。不过我们已经做好了准备。”
即使在倾向共和党的地区，人们也对联邦政府可能干预选举感到担忧。在切罗基县，选举主任为投票工作人员做了补充培训，讲解如果联邦特工来到投票站该如何应对。
https://www.cnn.com/
佐治亚州对联邦干预中期选举的担忧日益加剧
今年1月联邦调查局突袭佐治亚州一处选举中心后，越来越多人担忧特朗普政府可能干预中期选举。CNN的盖布·科恩采访了富尔顿县委员会主席罗布·皮茨。
1:57 • 来源：CNN
9月30日，佐治亚州选举委员会执行主任詹姆斯·米尔斯正式致信联邦官员，请求司法部介入一系列与选举相关的问题。
这封长达五页的信件致函美国司法部长托德·布兰奇、民权部门主管哈米特·迪隆和国土安全部长马克韦·马伦，请求联邦当局调查佐治亚州的投票系统、审查多米尼昂投票设备的软件更新、检查所谓的安全和选票保密漏洞，并在联邦监督下保存选举记录。
米尔斯未回应CNN的置评请求。
这一最新的2020年大选政治余波事件，是佐治亚州五人选举委员会与拉芬斯珀格之间多年斗争的一部分。该委员会负责制定选举规则并调查涉嫌违规行为，而拉芬斯珀格的办公室自2019年1月起负责全州范围内的选举管理工作。
2024年加入该委员会的共和党人珍妮尔·金认为，佐治亚州的投票系统仍不符合州法律。她指出，选民无法独立核对 ballot（选票）上打印的二维码，并对选票安全和保密提出了更广泛的质疑。
“选举系统本身已被证明存在漏洞，至于这些漏洞是否被利用，显然还有待商榷，”金告诉CNN。
她辩称，该委员会致信司法部是合理的，联邦的干预非常必要。
“这基本上是在告诉州务卿，作为州选举委员会，我们意识到佐治亚州的选举不符合规定，”金告诉CNN，“所以我们希望你纠正这一问题。既然你不听我们的，不听民众的呼声，或许司法部会听。”
金表示，她期待与下任州务卿的“新鲜血液”合作，无论其党派归属如何，因为拉芬斯珀格的第二个四年任期即将结束。
但其他现任和前任官员急于为该州的选举工作辩护。
“在佐治亚州投票显然是安全的；我们的系统很可靠，”加布·斯特林说，他最近辞去了佐治亚州最高投票管理人员的职务，自2019年以来一直是拉芬斯珀格的得力助手。
“我们有优秀的专业人士管理各县的选举办公室，这才是关键所在，”斯特林告诉CNN。
这位长期共和党人曾多年担任州务卿办公室首席运营官，现为“安全民主美国”的高级研究员，他表示自己“几乎没有真正担忧过”佐治亚州的投票系统会被篡改，但确实担心外部恶意行为者可能在网上进行干预。
“俄罗斯人、伊朗人、中国人继续在社交媒体、电子邮件和网站上做同样的事情，试图加剧矛盾，煽动对选举结果的质疑，”他说。
斯特林亲眼目睹了危险言论可能导致对选举官员的威胁，并表示他感谢州选举委员会的共和党成员“没有真正的权力”，他们曾被佐治亚州最高法院驳回诉求，并因违反公开记录法而被罚款。
“他们就是恶劣的行为者，”斯特林强调道，补充说执行主任“现在已经完全失控了”。
州务卿办公室官员和委员会的民主党成员也呼应了斯特林的观点，称最新的行动与其说是为了选举安全，不如说是为了削弱人们对选举结果的信心。
“我们拥有全美最精准的选举，”拉芬斯珀格在他办公室的一次采访中告诉CNN。
他强烈驳斥了选举委员会信件中的指控，称其“没有事实依据”。
“我们将确保我们拥有自由、公平且高效的选举，”拉芬斯珀格说，“佐治亚州的选民信任我们这里的选举程序。”
拉芬斯珀格今年在佐治亚州州长共和党初选中失利，将于明年1月卸任。他不担心联邦干预的可能性，并指出他的办公室一直是司法部的“优秀合作伙伴”。
民主党委员会成员萨拉·廷德尔·加扎尔告诉CNN，该委员会已经成为“疯狂阴谋论者的平台”。
加扎尔称米尔斯的信件是“一次可预见的恶意企图，旨在破坏人们对我们选举的信心，为质疑他们不认可的选举结果铺平道路”。
去年5月，选举委员会向特朗普政府时期的司法部提供了一份蓝图，用于申请对富尔顿县突袭行动的刑事搜查令。
司法部通过大陪审团还要求提供有关2020年富尔顿县计票工作中数千名选举工作人员的详细信息。这些调查仍在进行中。
在最近接受CBS《60分钟》采访时，助理司法部长哈米特·迪隆为特朗普政府与选举相关的调查进行了辩护。
迪隆表示，“除非出现某种意想不到的惊人意外情况，否则各州计票和认证结果的正常流程不应受到干扰。”
这场争议的核心是一个可能在11月之后仍将持续的根本问题：与民选独立产生的州务卿相比，州选举委员会应拥有多大的权力？司法部会试图介入吗？
委员会共有五名投票成员：一名由州长任命的主席；一名由州参议院任命的成员；一名由州众议院任命的成员；以及两名由州政党选出的成员，一名民主党人和一名共和党人。
自2025年米尔斯被任命为执行主任以来，他多次与委员会主席约翰·费维尔发生冲突。
费维尔是华夫饼屋的风险管理副总裁，2024年由共和党州长布莱恩·坎普任命，但他经常与委员会唯一的民主党成员加扎尔投出相同的票。
这场最新的争议发生之际，佐治亚州选民正准备选举新一任州务卿，此人将接手管理选举事务，并应对与选举委员会日益紧张的关系。
民主党候选人彭妮·布朗·雷诺兹是前富尔顿县法官，曾在拜登政府期间担任联邦民权职位。她表示，该州的选举已成为政治动机攻击的目标。
“这里是国会议员约翰·刘易斯和马丁·路德·金以及众多我们民权领袖的故乡，他们为投票权游行、抗议并献出了生命，”雷诺兹告诉CNN。她说，当前的许多争端都是由“基于恐惧和混乱的恐吓策略”驱动的。
她的共和党对手、州众议员蒂姆·弗莱明曾担任副州务卿和坎普的幕僚长。弗莱明的竞选活动大量宣传他管理州政府运营的经验，并辩称他最适合接替拉芬斯珀格。弗莱明未回应CNN的采访请求。
这位共和党人倡导选民身份证要求、手工填写纸质选票以及其他选举诚信措施。
雷诺兹表示，她支持继续使用佐治亚州的投票机，同时探索更广泛地使用手工填写纸质选票。如果当选，她承诺将捍卫投票权，反击她所说的持续破坏公众对选举信心的行为。
“拉芬斯珀格在那次电话事件中挺身而出，坚决反对所谓选举不自由、不公平、不安全且不合法的毫无根据的指控……因为他不愿听从共和党同僚的命令，他们便对他进行了报复，”雷诺兹告诉CNN。
如果她赢得选举，“我将忙得不可开交，”她说。
Top Georgia election officials clash over Trump-fueled conspiracy theories
2026-10-21T18:16:13.945Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/politics/georgia-election-board-secretary-of-state-trump
Whitfield County, Georgia—
On his nationwide campaign swing for Republicans, President Donald Trump traveled to Dalton, the self-proclaimed “Carpet Capital of the World,” last week and revived a familiar falsehood: that Georgia’s past elections were rigged.
In the rural manufacturing hub, democracy was humming. More than 900 people streamed through the Whitfield County courthouse — far and away the county’s busiest day in the first week of early voting. And in this deep-red part of northwest Georgia, the official overseeing those ballots had a sharply different message.
Whitfield County Election Director Shaynee Bryson told CNN that Georgia elections are secure, calling Trump’s claims “discouraging.”
“We do try to overlook it because we know the truth,” Bryson said. “And the majority of our voters know the truth.”
Election distrust has taken root here since 2020, as it has in many parts of red-leaning America. Bryson, who identifies with neither party, has spent election after election batting down false claims and conspiracy theories.
“I’ll say, ‘You know I agree with a lot of points that you agree on as well. Why would I ever rig it to be a different way for another candidate to win?’” she said.
Bryson fears election tensions are boiling up again. Her staff has started opening mail with gloves and masks after letters containing suspicious white substances arrived this month at election and political offices across the country, including in Georgia.
“I worry about Election Day workers at times,” Bryson said, “That’s what keeps me up at night. What if? What if?”
Few states carry more political scar tissue from 2020 than Georgia. Trump and his allies made it a centerpiece of their effort to challenge — and overturn — his defeat. That campaign included Trump’s infamous call urging Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse the result.
Since then, the Trump-aligned Georgia State Election Board has become a more powerful and combative force in an “election integrity” campaign. It has pushed tighter voting rules while raising doubts about voting systems and election results.
The board has also repeatedly attacked Raffensperger, portraying him as either incapable of running Georgia’s elections or unwilling to do so honestly.
Late last month, the board sent a letter to the Justice Department, asking the Trump administration for “intervention” in Georgia’s elections over its voting systems and machines. The request has fueled fears that Trump — who has sought greater federal control over elections — could take aggressive steps affecting the midterms in one of the country’s most closely watched battlegrounds.
Trump and his allies’ actions denying Georgia’s 2020 results became a central piece of racketeering charges against him and over a dozen of his supporters. After years of investigations, grand juries, court maneuverings, and a wild Fulton County mug shot, the case eventually crumbled before moving ahead or going to trial due to a botched prosecution.
The FBI served a search warrant to the Fulton County election warehouse outside Atlanta in January, taking roughly 700 boxes of election material to probe alleged vote fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The effort, fueled in part by 2020 election skeptics, drew sharp criticism from Raffensperger and other officials from both parties.
“Worst possible scenario: Election Day, before the votes are counted, they come in, confiscate the ballots, take them off,” Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts told CNN. “What I’ve learned with this administration, the impossible is always possible. We’re prepared though.”
There are also concerns — even in Republican-leaning areas — about possible federal action in the election. In Cherokee County, the director of elections made a supplemental presentation for poll workers on what to do if federal agents come to polling locations.
https://www.cnn.com/
Growing concern in Georgia about federal intervention in midterms
After the FBI raided an election hub in Georgia in January, there is now increasing concern that the Trump administration could interfere with the midterm election. CNN’s Gabe Cohen talks with Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts.
1:57 • Source: CNN
On September 30, Georgia State Election Board Executive Director James Mills sent a formal request to federal officials seeking Justice Department involvement in a series of election-related concerns.
The five-page letter, addressed to US Attorney General Todd Blanche, Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, asked federal authorities to investigate Georgia’s voting system, review software updates for Dominion voting equipment, examine alleged security and ballot-secrecy vulnerabilities and preserve election records under federal supervision.
Mills did not respond to CNN’s questions or request for comment about the letter.
This latest chapter of political fallout from 2020 is part of a yearslong struggle between Georgia’s five-member State Election Board, which writes election rules and investigates alleged violations, and Raffensperger, whose office has been tasked with administering elections statewide since January 2019.
Republican Janelle King, who joined the board in 2024, argues Georgia’s voting system remains out of compliance with state law. She points to concerns that voters cannot independently verify QR codes printed on ballots and raises broader questions about ballot security and secrecy.
“The system itself has proven that there are vulnerabilities, whether they were exploited or not, that’s obviously up for debate,” King told CNN.
She argues that the board’s letter to the Department of Justice is justified and that its intervention is badly needed.
“It’s basically letting the secretary of state know that as the State Election Board, we are aware that Georgia’s elections are not in compliance,” King told CNN. “So we want you to fix this. And the fact that you’re not listening to us, you’re not listening to the people, maybe you will listen to the DOJ.”
King said she looks forward to working with “new blood” in the next secretary of state, regardless of their party affiliation, now that Raffensperger’s second four-year term is coming to an end.
But other current and former officials are eager to defend the state’s efforts.
“It’s obviously safe to vote in Georgia; our systems are secure,” said Gabe Sterling, who recently left his position as Georgia’s top voting manager, where he had been Raffensperger’s right-hand man since 2019.
“We have fantastic professionals who run county offices, and that’s where the rubber meets the road, Sterling told CNN.
The longtime Republican, who spent years as the chief operating officer in the secretary of state’s office and is now a senior fellow with Secure Democracy USA, said he has “very few actual real concerns” that Georgia’s voting systems could be tampered with, but does worry about potential online meddling from outside bad actors.
“The Russians, the Iranians, the Chinese continue to do those same things in social media, emails, websites to try to exacerbate difficulties and exacerbate belief and outcomes,” he said.
Sterling witnessed firsthand that dangerous rhetoric can lead to threats made to election officials, and said he’s thankful that the state election board Republican members “have no real power” and have been smacked down by the Georgia Supreme Court as well as fined for violating open records acts.
“They are just bad actors,” Sterling stressed, adding that the executive director “is now just going completely off the rails.”
Secretary of state officials and the board’s Democratic member echo Sterling, saying the latest effort is less about election security than sowing doubt about election results.
“We have the most accurate election in the entire country,” Raffensperger told CNN in an interview in his office.
He strongly pushed back on the claims in the election board letter, saying that it “wasn’t supported by the facts.”
“We’re going to make sure that we have free, fair, and fast elections,” Raffensperger said, “the voters trust the process that we have here in Georgia.”
Raffensperger, who lost the Republican primary for Georgia governor this year and will leave office in January, was not concerned about the possibility of federal interference and noted that his office has been a “great partner” to the Department of Justice.
Democratic board member Sara Tindall Ghazal told CNN that the board has become “a platform for wild conspiracy theorists.”
Ghazal called Mills’ letter a “predictable bad-faith effort to undermine confidence in our election and lay the groundwork to contest election results they do not like.”
Last May, the election board gave Trump’s Justice Department a blueprint for obtaining a criminal search warrant for its Fulton County raid.
The Justice Department, using a grand jury, also demanded details about thousands of election workers who assisted Fulton County in the 2020 vote-counting. Those investigations are ongoing.
In a recent interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon defended the Trump administration’s election related investigation.
Dhillon said that “absent some shocking contingency that is unexpected, there should be no interruption in the usual course of counting and certifying the results in the states.”
At the center of the dispute is a fundamental question that is likely to persist beyond November: How much authority should the State Election Board wield compared with the independently elected secretary of state? And will DOJ try to insert itself?
The board has five voting members: a chairman appointed by the governor; one member appointed by the state Senate; one member appointed by the state House; and two members selected by state political parties, one Democrat and one Republican.
Since Mills was appointed to the executive director job in 2025, he has repeatedly clashed with the board’s chairman, John Fervier.
Fervier, a vice president of risk management at Waffle House, was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2024, but often finds himself voting alongside Ghazal, the board’s lone Democrat.
The latest controversy comes as Georgia voters prepare to elect a new secretary of state, who will inherit responsibility for managing elections and navigating the increasingly tense relationship with the election board.
Democrat Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Fulton County judge who also served in a federal civil rights role during the Biden administration, says the state’s elections have become a target of politically motivated attacks.
“This is the state of Congressman John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. and so many of our civil rights leaders who marched and protested and died for the right to vote,” Reynolds told CNN. She said many of the current disputes are driven by “fear tactics” that are “built on fear and confusion.”
Her Republican opponent, state Rep. Tim Fleming, is a former deputy secretary of state and chief of staff to Kemp. Fleming has campaigned heavily on his experience managing state government operations and argues he is best positioned to succeed Raffensperger. Fleming did not respond to CNN’s requests for an interview.
The Republican has championed voter ID requirements, hand-marked paper ballots and other election-integrity measures.
Reynolds said she supports continuing Georgia’s use of voting machines while also exploring broader use of hand-marked paper ballots. If elected, she pledged to defend voting rights against what she describes as ongoing efforts to undermine public confidence in elections.
“What Raffensperger did in standing up with regard to that telephone call and standing up to the unfounded claims that somehow the election was not free, fair, and secure, and legal … because he would not do the bidding of his Republican colleagues, they retaliated,” Reynolds told CNN.
And if she wins her race, “I’ll have my hands full,” she said.