Robert Barnes, founder of the national law firm Barnes Law is a veteran of election law and civil rights cases that protect “underdogs” across the ideological spectrum. In this interview with Cleta, he provides brilliant insight on how elections should be protected through equal application of law – and how the “usual suspects” fighting it are often not the usual suspects we expect.
In their instructive conversation, Robert and Cleta use examples from two states that highlight the deficiencies in equal application of both election law and procedure – often due to ideological and partisan pressures — and how that failure distorts election results.
Both Cleta and Robert were involved in 2020 as part of President Trump’s legal team that filed a post-election contest in Georgia. They discuss in this episode how judicial activism and a “not on my watch” Republican executive branch failed to comply with the Georgia election code and utterly disregarded the 64-page complaint filed by the legal team on behalf of Pres Trump and his campaign.
Supported by over 1800 pages of documented evidence of illegal voting in the 2020 general election in Georgia, the chief judge in Fulton County (Judge Chris Brasher) failed to appoint a judge eligible to hear the post-election contest, such that the experts and eyewitnesses were never allowed to testify or present the evidence of the problems in Georgia’s 2020 general election.
A similar scenario has emerged in Arizona, where the 2022 GOP nominee Kari Lake challenged the election results in 2022 based on substantial evidence of non-compliance with the Arizona election code by Maricopa County election officials: from problems in signature verification on absentee ballots, failure to adhere to chain of custody laws, unequal application of election standards and protocols, and many more. Just as in Georgia, there was a pattern of GOP election office insiders failing to properly administer the election – then mocking the citizens and Kari Lake for raising concerns and challenging the results.
What does this mean for the American voting public? According to Robert, a dangerous reduction in confidence in not only our elections but also an increasing loss of faith in a judicial system that allows judges to turn a blind eye to corruption and disregard of election laws.
How do we fix it? Participation of citizen patriots in local elections, and dragging state legislatures (perhaps kicking and screaming) back to exercising their constitutional duty to be determinative in election decisions, as set forth in the US Constitution.
Listen to the important information that is this episode of Who’s Counting? With Cleta Mitchell! Watch, listen, and subscribe to receive Cleta’s latest podcast interview each week.
And visit Robert’s website, (VivaBarnesLaw.Locals.com) which is full of news stories and podcasts and collaborative opportunities for engaged citizens on law, politics and culture.
