Candidates who have an oversight role in the electoral process should relinquish that authority if they’re running for office, RealClearPolitics Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon said on Monday.
“In these states, you have people overseeing the process, who are participants in the process, who are candidates. That shouldn’t happen,” Cannon told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
“These guys want to win, and both parties want to win,” Cannon said. “No single election is as important in my mind as voter confidence. You’d like to see them act more like statesmen rather than candidates.”
Sen.-elect Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Georgia Gov.-elect Brian Kemp (R) both held state positions during their campaigns that gave them authority over the electoral process.
Kemp declared victory earlier this month amid a hotly contested race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ended her campaign on Friday after she said she saw “no legal path forward.”
Abrams and her Democratic supporters accused Kemp, who formerly served as Georgia’s secretary of state, of voter suppression, an allegation that Kemp denied.
Scott, the current governor of Florida, and President Trump both alleged voter fraud in that state’s Senate race after Scott’s lead over incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) narrowed.
— Julia Manchester
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