As the essential Republican philosophy of Ni shagu nazad continues to be exercised apace in places like Wisconsin and the newly insane state of North Carolina, it brings into vivid focus the fact that Tuesday was an extraordinarily important day in the state of Georgia. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Tuesday’s runoff pits Democrat John Barrow against Republican Brad Raffensperger in the race for secretary of state, a contest for an open seat that pits two dueling approaches to the voter cancellations and long lines that drew national attention last month...

The contest assures that the debate in Georgia over ballot access remains front-and-center – not that it was in danger of losing steam. Barrow wants to keep Georgia’s photo ID laws but make it more difficult to cancel someone’s voter registration. Raffensperger aims to mostly maintain Georgia’s current election process and vows to combat potential voter fraud, which is extremely rare in part because of the requirement for voters to show photo ID. Add to that mix a far-reaching lawsuit filed last week by Abrams’ new voting rights advocacy group that seeks vast changes in the election system...

Brad Raffensberger Michael Holahan AP

Barrow, a former U.S. congressman, prided himself on winning five terms as a centrist as his east Georgia district grew increasingly competitive. Now he’s trying to rev up Democrats in an era where Abrams and other progressives dominate the party. Raffensperger is sticking to many of the conservative issues that Brian Kemp embraced when he was secretary of state, though he’s running a far lower-profile campaign that included skipping the only televised debate of the runoff.

No, Barrow is not the most progressive candidate the Democrats could have run but, given what we know about Brian Kemp's egregious misuse of this office in order to get elected governor, and given the fact that the prominent Georgia Republicans are already howling about how Barrow is trying to "steal" the runoff, it seems to me to be imperative that a Democratic secretary of state be elected in order to check the power of soon-to-be Governor Brian Kemp.

John Barrow Bill Clark Getty Images

(Here in the Commonwealth—God save it!—we have been known to elect the occasional Republican state treasurer in order to prevent the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature from stealing everything up to and including the Sacred Cod.)

Moreover, given events elsewhere, a vote for Barrow would carry a certain amount of national resonance in the fight against the organized ratfcking which is now SOP for Republican state parties across the country. This is very much a race to watch, and it is becoming more and more of one as the news rolls in from Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Michigan, where them rats don't fck themselves.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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