Georgia secretary of state says it's 'embarrassing' that GOP Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue badgered his office for information they already had

• Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said it was "embarrassing" that the state's GOP Senate candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, were badgering his office for information their campaigns already had.
• Loeffler and Perdue released a statement Monday calling for Raffensperger to "to compile and release a final list of newly registered voters" ahead of Georgia's Senate runoffs on January 5.
• "This is totally unacceptable," the senators said, adding, "This lack of transparency needs to be rectified immediately, or the integrity of our elections will remain threatened."
• "Though I've told the Republican Party to stop focusing on me and instead direct their energies to winning the Senate runoffs, clearly they haven't listened," Raffensperger said in response.
• He called it "embarrassing" for Perdue and Loeffler "not to know that the data they want is already publicly available" and that "their own campaigns already have the data they're looking for."

Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger didn't mince words Tuesday when he called out his party's two Senate candidates, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, for hounding his office for information their campaigns already had.

Loeffler and Perdue, both of whom are running to retain their seats in Georgia's upcoming Senate runoffs, released a statement earlier that called for the Georgia secretary of state "to compile and release a final list of newly registered voters following his failure to do so ahead of the start of early voting."

They added in their Monday statement that it had been a week since the deadline for voters to register had passed and Raffensperger had "failed" to release a final list of new voters.

"This is totally unacceptable," the senators said, adding, "This lack of transparency needs to be rectified immediately, or the integrity of our elections will remain threatened."

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said in response that it had "requested and received copies of the newly registered Georgia voters every day and the NRSC confirmed that it shared that public data with the Perdue and Loeffler Senate campaigns."

"Though I've told the Republican Party to stop focusing on me and instead direct their energies to winning the Senate runoffs, clearly they haven't listened," Raffensperger said. "As embarrassing as it is for Sens. Perdue and Loeffler not to know that the data they want is already publicly available from the Secretary of State, it's even worse that they're not aware their own campaigns already have the data they're looking for. Early voting has already started but it's not too late for them to call their offices and get their campaigns in order."

An NRSC representative also confirmed that "they have those lists."

In addition to information about newly registered voters, the lists also contain other demographic information, the date voters registered, and the date of the last vote they cast, if relevant.

Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp have faced a barrage of insults and criticism from President Donald Trump and his allies who blame Republican election officials for not doing enough to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 race.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump retweeted a post from the lawyer Lin Wood saying that Kemp and Raffensperger would be jailed for carrying out their legal and civic duty to certify the results of Georgia's presidential election.

Raffensperger and his wife have also faced death and rape threats from the president's supporters, one of whom said he should face a firing squad for certifying President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of Georgia's 16 electoral votes after a risk-limiting audit.

In the weeks since, Raffensperger has grown increasingly vocal about his efforts to combat the lies and disinformation Trump and his loyalists have spread about the election, telling Business Insider in a recent interview that the process is like "playing rumor whack-a-mole."