This Lindsey Graham Vote-Tossing Thing Seems... Not Legally Good

'Nice electoral system you have here, it'd be a shame if something happened to it.'

(Photo by Demetrius Freeman-Pool/Getty Images)

There was a point a few years ago when South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was trying to posture himself as the heir to John McCain’s “Maverick” brand. But Graham fumbled that away and transformed himself into one of the central personalities of the MAGAverse. It’s a decision that gives him a vested interest in salvaging the Trump administration so he can think about another failed presidential bid in 2024 instead of having to stand aside and cheer on Trump’s Grover Cleveland bid.

Which is presumably why a Senator with no real reason to stick his nose into Georgia’s electoral system found himself calling Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State and asking him… stuff:

In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.

That does not sound good at all!

For his part, Graham laughed off the idea that asking the Secretary of State about whether or not he could throw away legally cast ballots was actually an invitation to throw away legally cast ballots.

Graham confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that he pressured Raffensperger to throw out legally cast absentee ballots. According to Graham, he only wanted to learn more about the process for verifying signatures, because what happens in Georgia “affects the whole nation”.

“I thought it was a good conversation,” Graham said on Monday after the interview was published. “I’m surprised to hear he characterized it that way.”

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Oh? Graham was surprised that Raffensperger interpreted this comment as a call to toss legal ballots because they were inconvenient to the White House? Someone who was not surprised by Raffensperger’s take was Georgia official Gabe Sterling:

The path of “whether whole counties… could be thrown out” is a hell of a path!

That said, this seems to be shaping up as one of those classic “all I said was that he had a nice store and it would be a shame if something happened to it” remarks. Graham didn’t say anything that could actually be construed as illegal, but also not anything that makes one feel comfortable. When a national figure is leaning on a state official and casually tossing around questions about “the path to throwing out certain unfavorable counties” it doesn’t inspire confidence. It’s simply not a suggestion that people make unless they’re trying to convince the other person to take an action that at least constitutes a wild abuse of the legal rules if it’s not outright illegal.

But for everyone about to pile on calling Graham a criminal, it’s worth remembering that Graham is a lawyer and spent his years in the military on both sides of criminal prosecutions. Without knowing exactly what words he used in this conversation, it’s safe to say he made every effort to guarantee that he didn’t fall on the wrong side of the law.

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But it’s not “good” in any legal sense.

Georgia’s secretary of state says Lindsey Graham suggested he throw out legal ballots [The Guardian]


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.