Roy Barnes & Saxby Chambliss on defending Georgia elections

Well, as Georgia prepares for another high stakes general election, two of the state's most prominent former politicians are joining us live to offer firsthand election analysis to bolster public trust in the process. We just spoke to Angelique Proctor, who was talking about some 7000 voters. Whose votes were seemingly up in the air. That's been resolved at this point. Former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, former Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, here representing the Bipartisan Democracy Defense Foundation. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the 3 p.m. streaming hour on Fox Local. Why did you two decide to join this effort in the first place? There's nothing wrong with our elections. And they are safe, they are. We have an excellent system in Georgia. You're always gonna have some type of glitches from here or another. But we wanted to assure, Saxby and I wanted to assure everybody that our elections are safe. We've been through the state system, we know that it's safe. And that it's accurate, and we do not need to question elections because of just some fanciful idea. And that's the reason we've joined in this effort. And, you know, Tom, Roy and I have both been through numerous elections of our own. And we had confidence in every one of the elections that we've gone through. We know that technology has improved the system. We've had the legislature has updated some of the election laws to make it more secure and more valid. And it's as Roy says. We just have total confidence in the fact that the election process is going exactly like it should. And everybody can take confidence that their ballot is going to be counted. And at the end of the day, that there's going to be a winner and there's going to be a loser. That's the way elections go. Well, you two were in office during a perhaps, I guess, relatively speaking, a much less volatile time in politics, although there was plenty of volatility, I'm sure, when both of you served in your own right. But the fact that you two, these two credible figures in Georgia politics, are stepping up to reassure voters as they head to the polls tomorrow, Governor Barnes, what specific Checks are we talking about here? Security protocols that exist in Georgia that should give voters sort of added confidence as they head to the polls tomorrow? There are a series of double checks at every stage. Secretary Raffensperger has done a great job of overseeing this. And it's just not you take a ballot and you throw it into the box. Visit. They take your name, that's one check, and they make sure when you sign in that you have an ID, a valid ID. They check the number that votes. They cross-check that against the number of ballots issued. I mean, there are systems at every... Every step that assures that your vote will be counted and it won't be changed. Listen, this idea that you can try to fraudulently throw an election, that's just not true. I'm just telling you, that's just not true. But Senator Shambless, you know, there's nothing wrong necessarily. With being a skeptic as we head to the polls, we just want to make sure that our vote is counted and and we like to believe that that as Governor Barnes said that it's just not true that you can pull an election one way or another through nefarious ways, but. You know, that means that me as a voter, I'm supposed to just trust the system. There are a lot of people out there, and you really can't take anything away from them, that just want to make sure all the protocols and procedures are bona fide processes and that nothing's going on behind the scenes that they need to worry about. Why is there a stigma attached to that? Well, there have been questions about elections from both parties, the primary voting parties over the last several elections. And the one. One backstop that we have in Georgia is the courts, and we've had questions raised after elections and any number of recent elections, and every single time the complaining party went to court. The courts have validated the system and validated the elections. You know, Tom, we have 159 counties in Georgia. Every one of those 159 counties has any number of precincts. There's an opportunity for mischief to go on. But, you know, because of the steps that Roy just laid out there and, you know, starting with registering, registration of voters are just validated that they can vote. And from that point of registration all the way through to standing in that line that you're having on your screen now and following that, that when the votes are counted, people who are in charge of the election, those elections are very. They're professional, they're well-trained, and they know what to do, and they know how to go through all of these steps to make sure that you are entitled to vote, that you are who you say you are, and at the end of the day, that your vote is going to count. Governor Barnes, is it also incumbent upon. Politicians who may perhaps lose an election and even by close margins or even wider margins not to come out there and try to delegitimize whoever won the election. Is it incumbent upon them to trust the process too? And this has happened on both sides of the aisle. I'm not just talking about the President of the United States. We've had former People who have run for president on the Democratic side, even governor here in Georgia, who have called into question the results of an election. So are you calling on politicians to just take a breath after results are announced and not come out there right away and start to try to delegitimize the process? Absolutely. I wrote an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over the weekend. It said, you know, I was defeated in 2002, and so I said I did not go to try to set aside the system because I had confidence in the system, and I had folks that come to me after that and says, you know, that was the first election where we had used a statewide system And said there was this Republican operative that owns. The voting rights company, the voting machine company, come and put a patch on the election, on all the machines right before the elections and said that the election was stolen from me. I told them, I said, no, I think I lost that election all on my own. And I am not going to delegitimize that election. I said there are two people that we... Two national figures that we owe a debt of gratitude. One was Richard Nixon in the 1960 election, which there was probably some hanky-panky in Chicago, and the election was the closest we've ever had. And he said, no, we're not going to, it will tear the country apart, and we're not going to try to attack the results of the election. The other one was Al Gore. I mean, he lost the election by 500 votes, roughly, in Florida. And he contested, went through the courts, the courts ruled, and he came out and he said, I accept the election. That's what statesmen and people that really have the interest of the public at large do. They do not go in and try to delegitimize the elections because all that does is to create chaos, doubt, and creates division in the nation. Real quick, before we go, Senator Chambliss, do you believe that the federal government also needs to act in the form of the federal legislation? You know. Proof of ID and those things to sort of add yet another layer of voter protection out there? You know, the Constitution is pretty clear that the voting procedures are a state matter. And I don't know all the state's laws around the country, but I know Georgia's. And I know our legislature has done a really good job of updating our voting process. Governor Kemp and his predecessors have done a really good job of... Ensuring the resources that they needed to do to carry out the laws that we passed here. We know how to run elections here. We don't need Washington telling us how to do our elections in Georgia. So the SAVE Act that they were debating, you're not necessarily a supporter of that? As far as I know, everything that is required in the SAVE Act, we already have in Georgia. Fair enough. Gentlemen, so good to have you with us on this election day eve to talk about voting integrity and how the state is working to secure our votes here in the state of Georgia. Really appreciate it. Roy Barnes, former governor of Georgia, Saxby Chambliss, former United States Senator, thanks so much. Thank you.