Georgia legal defense fund seeks to support election officials under attack for ‘doing the right thing’

(CNN) — 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.

Right now, the group is supporting Raffensperger in litigation he’s facing stemming from the 2020 election, when he became a key target for Trump supporters over his decision to rebuff requests to reverse Biden’s win there. Germany said the fund is also working to drive the narrative that the state’s election is going smoothly to get out ahead of potential efforts by Trump’s allies to undermine the results.

The state is seeing record high early voter turnout this year, and Raffensperger said Wednesday that his office was ready to defend the process should legal challenges arise after Election Day.

“I have put voters first. And that really matters to me,” Raffensperger said during a news conference. “When we do that we build confidence. And by building confidence we build trust. And trust is today’s modern day gold standard. We’re battle tested. We’re ready.”

Germany said that what the group ultimately does with the money it raises might not be known until after Tuesday, when county election officials begin finalizing the state’s results ahead of a November 12 deadline.

Democrats and others have raised concerns that some local officials in the state might try to delay or decline certification if they think the election has been tainted by fraud or abuse. A state judge ruled earlier this month that while county election officials have an obligation to “investigate concerns about miscounts,” such concern “is not cause to delay or decline certification,” which he said was required under state law.

If an election official attempts to violate their duties under the law, Germany said, “We would, you know, attempt to come in on the other side of that.”

He also said that if the Election Defense Fund is successful in meeting its fundraising target, the group would be open to helping election officials who might need assistance in other states where post-election issues pop up.

“What if it’s not Georgia, right? What if it’s some other state?” he said. “I’ve been kind of fortunate to get to know election officials in other states, and I think we can hopefully reach out to them and basically say, ‘How can we help?’”

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