Georgia House Speaker requests state postpone May primary
ATLANTA - One of Georgia's top lawmakers wants the state to postpone May's primary in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Thursday, House Speaker David Ralston asked that the May 19 general primary be delayed until June 23 at the earliest.
"Our paramount duty as leaders is to make sure that things are gonna be safe and they're health's not going to be endangered by exercising their right to vote and right now, we can't tell them on May 19th that they will be," said Speaker Ralston.
SEE ALSO: Georgia House Speaker asks Sec. of State to push back primaries another month
The Speaker said his primary concern was the health of not only voters, but poll workers and elections officials.
"Well right now, we can't by law. The general primary's set by statute and that's really the issue that we have," said Sec. Raffensperger in a brief interview hours after the letter became public.
SEE ALSO: Georgia State Representative tests positive for coronavirus
The Secretary of State's Office declined to comment any further Friday.
"If he feels like it needs to be done by statute, then we'll look at another option to get that done," Ralston said. "But we cannot ask people to come vote at a time when we can't tell them that it's safe to do so."
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