CNN
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Four years ago, Georgia was at the center of attempts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss.
Officials from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, down to individual poll workers faced an onslaught of attacks, including harassment, physical threats and legal action. This year, fears of a repeat assault on the state’s election workers for doing their jobs have driven the creation of a new legal defense fund.
The group has been set up by Raffensperger allies to provide legal aid to election officials who are “harassed, targeted, or sued” for carrying out their duties in the critical battleground state.
The Election Defense Fund also plans to support lawsuits against election officials who might attempt to deny or decline certification of this year’s results altogether.
The group has so far raised nearly $2 million for their efforts, with their overall goal being upwards of $5 million, said Ryan Germany, who served as general counsel in Raffensperger’s office and is now one of the leaders of Election Defense Fund.
“The overall goal is, of course, we want to support the election officials who are doing the right thing. And, you know, part of what we’d like to accomplish is like, ‘Hey, if you’re an election official and you do the right thing, you follow the law, you’re going to have support,’” Germany told CNN.
“And the converse of that is: If you don’t, if you go rogue, then you’re on your own,” he said.
Trump and his supporters have already started laying the groundwork to support claims of a rigged election if he loses – an effort that is expected to play out both in and out of court and feature prominently in places where the final margins might be close. Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 by just under 12,000 votes.
Germany said the group’s mission is to defend the state’s election results regardless of which way the presidential contest goes this year.
“Where we thought something was needed was someone, you know, a group, to defend the process and the people doing that process, whether that’s a Kamala (Harris) victory or a Trump victory,” he said.
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