ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia election investigators found that U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s wife did not commit any residency violation by voting in Georgia in the 2020 general election after requesting an absentee ballot be sent to Texas.
The secretary of state’s office last month opened an investigation into Julie Blanchard after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that records showed that at the time of last year’s election she was living in Texas. An investigator on Tuesday told the State Election Board that no violation was found, and the board voted unanimously to dismiss the case.
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Blanchard told secretary of state’s investigators that she considers herself a resident of Georgia, even though her husband has a home in Texas and they spend time there. She has a Georgia driver’s license and vehicle registration, owns property in Atlanta and has utilities accounts in her name, has a business in Georgia and pays state income taxes, the investigator told the board.
Walker, a former running back for the University of Georgia and the Dallas Cowboys, on Aug. 24 filed paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in Georgia. He joined several other Republicans seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022. He has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who had encouraged him to run.
The Journal-Constitution had reported Aug. 10 that Blanchard, who married Walker in May, requested a ballot be sent to her in Westlake, Texas, for the 2020 presidential election and returned it.
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