The Wall Street Journal editorial dismissed a renewed Georgia "stolen election" conspiracy as partisan nonsense while acknowledging widespread procedural errors in Fulton County’s early-voting tabulator tapes. The paper said unsigned tapes signal an administrative overhaul is needed but warned clerical mistakes do not justify discarding large numbers of ballots. It noted the issue has been amplified by Brad Raffensperger’s gubernatorial campaign and urged Republicans to stop indulging former President Trump’s shifting fraud claims.
Wall Street Journal Brands New Georgia 'Stolen Election' Claims 'Nonsense' While Calling Out Administrative Errors
The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal sharply rejected a renewed conspiracy theory alleging the 2020 presidential election in Georgia was stolen, while acknowledging procedural errors in Fulton County’s early-voting process.
“The nation’s MAGA minds are still looking back at 2020 and stretching to justify President Trump’s delusion of a stolen election,”
The Journal noted the specific procedural lapse driving the latest controversy: many poll workers in Fulton County did not sign tabulator tapes used during early voting. The paper conceded that unsigned tabulator tapes are a legitimate concern and wrote that the pattern of mistakes during early voting suggests the local election operation needed reform.
But the editorial warned against overstating the problem. It argued that clerical errors by poll workers are not grounds to discard “tens or hundreds of thousands” of valid ballots cast by Georgia voters. Instead, the paper framed the episode as an administrative failure that undermines public confidence but does not prove a vast, coordinated fraud.
The Journal also observed that the controversy has taken on heightened political significance because Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is running for governor, and his GOP primary opponents are using the Fulton County mistake as a campaign issue.
The editorial reiterated that Georgia was one of the battleground states at the center of former President Trump’s repeated claims that the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden—claims that have been dismissed by courts and by election officials, including Raffensperger.
“Elections are supposed to run by the book, and Fulton County’s blunder is bad for public confidence,” the Journal wrote, adding that Mr. Trump’s “constantly shifting claims” that the 2020 race was stolen are equally harmful when every irregularity is presented as proof of a vast conspiracy.
The editorial concluded by saying Trump will likely never retract his allegations, but urged Republicans who care about the party’s future to stop indulging those claims and to press instead for concrete administrative reforms that restore voter confidence.
Takeaway: The Wall Street Journal balanced a critique of procedural failures in Fulton County with a firm rejection of the broader stolen-election narrative, calling for administrative fixes rather than the wholesale dismissal of ballots.
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