Tuesday 24 May 2022 07:28 PM McConnell accuses Democrats of a 'big lie' over Georgia election law as early ... trends now

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of pushing a 'big lie' about voter suppression on Tuesday as Georgians head to the ballot box after already having shattered early voting records for a primary election.

The Peach State's primary elections are the first test of its new election security law, which President Joe Biden blasted as an 'atrocity' and 'Jim Crow in the 21st Century' when it was passed last year.

Addressing the Senate floor on Tuesday morning, McConnell cast the roughly 850,000 votes sent in early in Georgia as proof that Democratic attacks on the law were 'disinformation.'

'We are seeing the hard evidence as we all knew the hysteria was never based on fact to begin with,' McConnell said. He quoted a report claiming an elderly black voter had said, 'I had heard that we were going to try to -- they were going to try to deter us in any way possible.'

The Kentucky Republican added: ' Shame, shame on the Democrats who pushed the big lie that a grand scheme was afoot to prevent millions of Americans from voting.'

McConnell's use of the phrase 'big lie' is significant - it's the shorthand nickname that Democrats and members of the mainstream media have adopted for Donald Trump's false claims the 2020 election fraud was stolen.

'It was never true. It was just to push their preexisting policy agenda. The fake hysteria was just a pretext to push a sweeping national takeover of election laws that Democrats had already had on the shelf for a number of years,' the Senate GOP leader said, referencing federal voter protection legislation like the John R. Lewis Act that failed to pass in the Senate.

It's the kind of national action spearheaded by former Georgia state lawmaker and 2022 gubernatorial candidate, progressive activist Stacey Abrams. Since narrowly losing the 2018 governor's race to Republican Brian Kemp - who oversaw Georgia elections at the time as Secretary of State - Abrams has focused her efforts and rising Democratic profile on increasing voter registration and turnout. 

McConnell said Tuesday of those efforts, 'Now the rhetoric is proving false right before our eyes. These commonsense Republican laws appear to be achieving just what the American people want.'

'The American people want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.'

Early voting in Georgia's 2022 primary elections was a 168 percent increase over those in 2018 and a staggering 212 percent higher than the 2020 primaries, a presidential election year.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump is actively campaigning to unseat in Tuesday's Republican primary, credited the Election Integrity Act for the record turnout.

The number are a 'testament to the security of the voting system and the hard work of our county election officials,' he said in a statement.

'The incredible turnout we have seen demonstrates once and for all that Georgia’s Election Integrity Act struck a good balance between the guardrails of access and security.' 

It comes after another Georgia primary candidate - former Senator David Perdue, who is running to unseat Kemp with Trump's blessing - told Abrams to 'go back where she came from' and accused her of 'demeaning her own race' after she called Georgia the 'worst state' to live in the country as voters headed to the polls for the primaries. 

The Trump-backed Perdue accused the Democratic candidate for governor on Monday night of 'demeaning her own race' with the comments on the eve of the Republican race that sees him trailing to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

'She said that Georgia is the worst place in the country to live. Hey, she ain't from here,' Perdue said during an appearance on John Fredericks's radio show. 'Let her go back to where she came from. She doesn't like it here. 

'The only thing she wants is to be president of the United States. She doesn't care about the people of Georgia.

'She should never be considered material for governor of any state, much less our state where she hates to live.' 

Abrams was born in Wisconsin and lived in Mississippi before she moved to Georgia for high school and college and to start her political career.

Perdue then went on to discuss comments she made in 2018 that residents 'shouldn't have to go into or hospitality to make a living in Georgia.'

'When she told black farmers, 'You don't need to be on the farm,' and she told black workers in hospitality and all this, 'You don't need to be,' she is demeaning her own.'

Republicans have torn into the comments Abrams made at the weekend on Georgia. She claimed they were taken out of context and were in reference to the state's low ranking in issues such as maternal mortality rates.

'I am tired of hearing about being the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live,' Abrams said. 'When you're No. 48 for mental, when you're No. 1 for maternal mortality, when you have an incarceration rate that's on the rise and wages that are on the decline, then you are not the No. 1 place to live in the United States. 

'But we can get there. You see, Georgia is capable of greatness. We just need greatness to be in our governor's office'.

Georgia voters head to the polls for primaries and a test of Trump's power: Marjorie Taylor Greene fights for re-election and Perdue tries to bring down Brian Kemp 

Georgia primary voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday, where the strength of Donald Trump's endorsements will be tested on everything from Congressional races, the governor's primary and even for the role overseeing the state's elections.

The Peach State shattered early voting records for a primary election, with more than 850,000 already cast according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office. 

'Compared early-voting turnout in recent primaries, this represented a 168 percent increase over the 2018, the last gubernatorial primary and a 212 percent jump above 2020, the last presidential primary year,' a statement from his office read.

Raffensperger credited the state's newly-passed election security law for the surge by creating 'short lines, smooth easy ballot access, and confidence in ballot security,' despite Democrat critics blasting it as 'voter suppression.' 

In the heavily-rural 14th Congressional District, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing a crowded field of opponents trying to take her seat led by healthcare executive Jennifer Strahan. 

Meanwhile Republican voters statewide will go to the ballot box to decide whether to keep Governor Brian Kemp or get behind his Trump-backed opponent, former Senator Perdue. 

Strahan is hoping to offer voters the same brand of Trump-inspired America First politics without the eyebrow-raising headlines that caused Greene to be stripped of her committee assignments by the Democrat-led House early last year.

Asked how Greene feels heading into Tuesday race, her spokesman told DailyMail.com that 'she is very confident.'