ATLANTA — The State Election Board dismissed a complaint Tuesday that the wife of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker had voted illegally in Georgia while living in Texas.
The case against Julie Blanchard ended after an investigation by the secretary of state’s office found insufficient evidence to prove that she was ineligible to cast an absentee ballot in Georgia from her and Walker’s home in Texas.
The State Election Board voted 4-0 to close the case.
Election investigators reviewed Blanchard’s voting eligibility in response to a complaint made days before Walker, a former University of Georgia football star, entered the race for the U.S. Senate last month. It’s illegal for nonresidents to vote in Georgia in most circumstances.
“This was yet another absurd smear campaign by Herschel’s political opponents,” said Mallory Blount, a spokeswoman for his campaign. “Herschel is traveling across the state connecting with Georgians and is laser-focused on beating Raphael Warnock. Glad this matter is put to rest.”
Blanchard is a Georgia resident, property owner and eligible voter, according to the investigation’s findings. She has a Georgia driver’s license, pays state income taxes and runs a business in the state.
The investigation found that Blanchard considers Georgia her home, but it didn’t address whether she meets requirements in Georgia law for voters to reside where their “habitation is fixed.”
Blanchard owns a home with Walker in Westlake, Texas, and she also owns property near Buckhead in Fulton County.
She hasn’t disclosed which was her primary residence. Voters who move to another state with the intention of making it their residence lose their eligibility to vote in Georgia.
Election records show that Blanchard used her Georgia address to return an absentee ballot in the 2020 presidential election, which she mailed in October from the couple’s residence in Texas.
Blanchard’s vote raised questions by one of Walker’s Republican opponents, Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, who said it complicates GOP efforts to brand the party as champions of voter integrity.
Walker has called for prosecutions of voter fraud, though there’s no evidence of rampant abuse. He also has promoted other false claims made by former President Donald Trump that voting irregularities occurred in November’s election. Trump encouraged Walker to enter the Senate race.
The State Election Board’s four members — three Republicans and one Democrat — didn’t discuss the case before voting to dismiss it.
———
