Governor Brian Kemp and House Speaker David Ralson have asked Rep. Barry Fleming (R-
Augusta) to step down from his position on the Judiciary committee and become chair of the
Committee for Election Integrity.
“It’s a role we wish we didn’t have to create, but it is what it is,” Fleming told Austin Rhodes on
WGAC radio.
Fleming said that the pandemic caused a strain on the election system that it was never designed
to handle.
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“When you have 20 to 25 percent of absentee ballots when the system was only designed for
around 5 percent absentee ballots, you are going to run into problems, the system gets
overwhelmed,” he commented.
Fleming praised local election board leaders Nancy Gay and Lynn Bailey who supervise
elections in Columbia and Richmond counties respectively.
“They did great here locally, It was really the large areas like Atlanta that experienced the
problems,” Fleming said.
The committee will begin its investigation immediately. Fleming says the goal is to identify what
might have gone wrong and offer solutions so that all Georgia voters have faith their ballots are
counted correctly.
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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