Georgia officials created hostile environment to citizens challenging the vote

 True the Vote:

Citizen Challengers Face Coordinated Effort to Undermine and Discredit

...

Take, for example the experience of former public servant and former United States Marine Ron Johnson, which we have written about here.

Johnson in good faith brought challenges to his county, in the hopes simply of validating the addresses of purported residents for whom a change of address has been file: a responsibility of the County Board of Elections and Registration.

That challenge was dismissively tossed by the board, as the video shows, in a hostile meeting during which Johnson was threatened with physical removal by the chair, who was decidedly more cooperative and forgiving on procedure when the county’s Democratic party chair spoke up.

Then there is Caesar Gonzales, a former candidate, the son of an immigrant, and a longtime resident of Douglas County.

Gonzales filed his challenges in accordance with the law and by proper procedure. Mr. Gonzales was rewarded for his effort with multiple “abusive” phone calls from the Director of the Elections Board Milton Kidd.

Mr. Gonzales reports that he had to leave town unexpectedly, to visit a dying relative. Having told that to the board, they nevertheless held the meeting to dismiss his challenges without him.

The board not only voted against him, but characterized him as being part of a partisan attack, even going so far as to have the ACLU rebut him in absentia. “I was insulted and accused =of being a liar,” Mr. Gonzales said, “and I wasn’t even there to defend myself.”
...

But the mocking and condescending treatment of these upstanding members of their communities is not the far extent of reaction.

In the case of Gordon Rhoden, chairman of the Athens Republican Party, his challenges were met not just with scorn but with a virtual hit squad.

The Georgia Star News reports that Elections Board Chairman Jesse Evans open the meeting by reading aloud from a laundry list of left-wing political interest groups as they attacked Mr. Rhoden’s character and the character of the challenges.

“The list was a who’s who of far-left groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, The Georgia League of Women Voters, and NAACP of Georgia,” writes the Star, “all of whom claimed that disqualifying the voters would not only amount to voter suppression, but might be against federal law.”

Flagpole adds that “Susannah Scott, president of the League of Women Voters of Georgia, called [the challenges] an ‘obvious and unwarranted attempt to suppress voter turnout’ in an email to the board.”

All three men report that they have been accused of dishonesty, disloyalty, and particularly racism, in having brought their challenges.

That campaign to smear and intimidate isn’t limited to individuals, it’s part of a broader effort ongoing in Georgia.

The reaction across the state from officials – almost exclusively Democrats or Democrat-appointed – has been an exasperated annoyance at being asked to perform their duties to the best of their ability, and the concerns of citizens were treated as an inconvenience and interruption, to be dealt with quickly and with disdain.
...

The hostile environment raises even more questions about the fairness of the election in Georgia.  These citizens were entitled to a respectful hearing of their questions and did not deserve the abusive treatment they received.