Georgia Republicans worry that a misinformed public could hurt turnout in January

In the high-stakes runoff election for two U.S. Senate seats that will decide which party controls the chamber under President-elect Joe Biden, Republicans in Georgia worry that many reliable GOP voters will let cynicism over allegations of election fraud keep them from the polls. Georgia Republican Assembly President Alexander Johnson is concerned that a misinformed public will affect voter turnout in the runoff election.

Video transcript

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ALEX JOHNSON: Georgia is a red state. And I think that ultimately Georgia voters care a lot about the issues. I think that what's important to recognize is the good results of policy that came under President Trump prior to COVID hitting. And I think that ultimately with the senators is that they really need every vote they can get.

DAVID PERDUE: 11 million people in Georgia, 5 million voters, of that 11 million, are going to determine the future of America in the next [INAUDIBLE] years.

KELLY LOEFFLER: It's not just the control of the US Senate. It's the future of our country. We are going to hold the line against socialism right here in Georgia. Yes!

[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]

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ALEX JOHNSON: I'm Alex Johnson. I'm President of the Georgia Republican Assembly. I think the way Republicans get votes is by focusing on policy, not necessarily focusing on personalities. So when it comes to President Trump or not, I think that voters are less interested in the personality and more interested in what's going to happen to them. And I think that with Democrat victories, that would end up causing a lot of problems with the stability of the country.

I think that what's changed a lot within the GOP is that there's a sense that Republicans now are more willing to point out the hypocrisy of the left and to fight back instead of just acting as if the Democrat criticisms have any validity. You know, after Republicans are accused of being racist or discriminatory, yet, when it's the Democrats who have historically been in favor of gun control laws and instituted them to begin with to incarcerate minorities, it's something where it's good to see President Trump not acting as if the left is telling the truth.

The idea of whether or not the election is secure or not will definitely have an effect into January. I think that it's very important that for people to trust the system they need to understand the system and know that legal votes will be counted; that it's a fair and just system. And I think that one of the major problems right now is there's so much talk about what people think regarding the election instead of the facts of the way voting works, what happens to your ballot, how signatures are verified, and just how the process works. And I think that uncertainty could definitely hurt turnout throughout the election.

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