Fight to vote: William Barr finally contradicts Trump on election fraud

Good morning Fight to Vote readers,

Hope you all had a safe and healthy Thanksgiving break. I’m particularly thankful that I came back to a slightly more optimistic week for voting rights. First, there’s the fact that Donald Trump finally said he would leave the White House if the electoral college confirmed Joe Biden as president on 14 December. Then, there’s the surprising about-face from William Barr, the attorney general.

Is Barr … good now?

I wouldn’t go that far. But Trump’s top justice official announced on Tuesday that his department had not uncovered any instances of voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election.

This, of course, marks a departure from Barr’s boss, the president, who has been claiming the election was rigged against him and that illegal votes were counted. It’s also a departure from Barr’s own previous statements that mail-in voting was vulnerable to fraud. Nevertheless, there was never any evidence of widespread voter tampering, and now Trump’s ardent ally has confirmed that.

Trump’s election integrity battle remains ugly

Trump’s campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova was condemned for his violent remarks on a podcast about Chris Krebs, a top election security official whom Trump recently fired. “Anybody who thinks the election went well,” DiGenova said, “like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity, that guy is a class-A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”

Related: Fight to Vote: A revolt against Trump's election denialism

The Georgia secretary of state’s office is continuing to resist the White House rhetoric. After Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state, pushed back on Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in Georgia, another official spoke up. Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversees the state’s voting system, called out the president for inciting violence.

“Mr President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Sterling said at a press conference on Tuesday, during which he became visibly angry. “We’re investigating, there’s always a possibility, I get it. You have the right to go to the courts. What you don’t have the ability to do – and you need to step up and say this – is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed, and it’s not right. It’s not right.”

Want to join the fight for voting rights?

All eyes are on Georgia as the heated Senate runoff battle approaches. But here at Fight to Vote we’re not about donating to campaigns or watching candidate Jon Ossoff’s TikTok channel. Instead, here are some organizations focused on making sure residents are educated about the voting process:

• The New Georgia Project, a non-partisan organization, is continuing voter registration drives

• The Georgia secretary of state website allows residents to check their registration status

• Four Directions is focused on providing ballot box access to Native Americans

I’ll leave you with this: calls for Dolly Parton to get the presidential medal of freedom.