(The Center Square) – Democrat Penny Brown Reynolds put President Donald Trump in the center of a debate for Georgia secretary of state on Monday, asking Republican Tim Fleming to say he would “stand up” to the president.
Reynolds, a former Fulton County judge who served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for Civil Rights and Chief EEO Officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, mentioned the president in her opening statement.
“I will make certain that our elections are fair, free and secure,” Reynolds said. “I am not a career politician and I will not bow down to Donald Trump or anyone else.”
Fleming, a state representative who served as deputy secretary of state when now-Gov. Brian Kemp was secretary of state, did not mention Trump when Reynolds asked whether he would “speak up” to the president about his executive order requiring verification of mail-in ballots. The order was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I do believe there needs to be further guardrails and restrictions around mail-in and absentee ballots,” Fleming said. “I do believe we did not have enough time to implement what was being proposed, as we were so close to Election Day. If you talk to any of the 159 election superintendents across the state, you’ll know that elections actually start 75 to 80 days before the election. So there was just not time to implement that.”
Fleming and Reynolds are running to succeed the Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who made an unsuccessful run for governor and is not seeking another term. The debate is part of the Atlanta Press Club’s Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.
Fleming said he supported a voting system that requires hand-marked ballots. He is a member of the Joint Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee, which will make recommendations on a new voting system for Georgia.
“Seventy percent of the United States currently votes that way,” Fleming said. “I believe that it could be cost savings not only to the state, but also to the counties when it comes to the storage of these big ballot marking devices.”
Reynolds said she was for paper ballots or machines before turning her answer back to Trump.
“But I can tell you this much, when that call came from the president asking for 11,780 votes, he wasn’t going to be able to get them from a machine count,” Reynolds said. “He was going to be able to get them from paper ballots.”
Raffensperger recorded a call from Trump after the 2020 election, saying, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” the number by which Trump was behind former President Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly claimed the election was “rigged,” but recounts did not find enough evidence to overturn the election.
The secretary of state’s office also handles business and professional licenses. Fleming said the number one complaint he receives from constituents is about getting their professional licenses.
“As your next secretary of state, I will work to bring reforms to the legislature to streamline this process, to get government out of the way,” Fleming said. “It is my belief that if you want a professional license in this state, you meet the criteria that the state says you’ve got to have, you have the education required for that profession and there’s nothing in your criminal background that prevents you from working in that profession, you should get that license automatically and get the government out of the way.”
When asked the same question, Reynolds cited a 2015 data breach at the office that exposed Georgians’ Social Security numbers during Fleming’s tenure as deputy secretary of state. The data breach involved voting information and not business licenses.
“And as far as our people who are trying to get their license renewed, it has been abhorrent under your leadership to now want to take credit for something you broke because you can’t fix it,” Reynolds said.
Fleming said the data breach was attributed to an employee’s failure to follow established procedures. The employee was terminated, and new safeguards were implemented, he said.
Early voting begins Tuesday in Georgia and runs through Oct. 30.