(The Center Square) – In a state where election security has been scrutinized since 2020, Georgia gubernatorial candidates are expressing different views about the upcoming election on the campaign trail.

Election security was one of the questions asked of Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms at a campaign event held Saturday in Ringgold. 

"We can't have a 12,000 vote difference in this state," Bottoms said. "These numbers have to be so high that there is no question about how voters turned out to vote."

Georgia's elections have been in the national spotlight since 2020, when current President Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recorded a call with Trump in which Trump said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes." 

The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication getting comment from Republican Rick Jackson, the opponent of Bottoms.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that audio obtained from a Jackson campaign rally held in Columbus on Aug. 13 suggests that Gov. Brian Kemp would use the National Guard to monitor the election. 

In a response to an unidentified supporter, Jackson said on the audio, “Yes, he’s going to get the National Guard," referring to Kemp. 

“We’ve proven for multiple cycles now that it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat in Georgia elections," a spokesman for Kemp said. "The same will be true this cycle. We are approaching this upcoming election the exact same way we have in the past.”

Bottoms criticized Jackson's statement referring to the National Guard. 

“Rick Jackson is once again telling Georgians how he will be Trump’s favorite governor – this time by spreading election lies and threatening our elections," Bottoms said in a statement. "Jackson has stood with Donald Trump as the president orchestrated a raid of Fulton County’s election hub and went after Georgia’s election workers."

The FBI and the Justice Department are continuing an investigation into Georgia's 2020 elections, focusing on Fulton County. The FBI raided the Fulton County Elections Office in January, and the Justice Department has subpoenaed the county for personal information about the poll workers in that election.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday approved an order from the Trump administration that allows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to curate lists of eligible voters in each state. 

The U.S. Postal Service will check the lists before sending out mail-in ballots, according to the order. 

"This internal directive does not regulate the states’ voter registration processes," justices on the high court wrote. "Nor does it impinge on the states’ authority ‘to create and enforce a legal code’ for elections.'"

Raffensperger created a bipartisan election integrity task force that will host a series of regional roundtables on election security. 

Former Gov. Roy Barnes and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, both Democrats and former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and former U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, both Republicans, are part of the nine-member task force. The four are part of the Democracy Defense Network, a bipartisan nonprofit that says its mission is to restore "faith in the transparency, safety, security, and validity of our election process."

Other members are election law expert Ben Ginsberg, former state Sen. Don Balfour, Joseph Kirk, Bartow County elections supervisor and immediate past president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials; Nancy Boren, Muscogee County Elections and Registration director; and Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association.

The group will "push back" on election misinformation, Raffensperger said in an interview with The Center Square.

A panel of state lawmakers is discussing a new voting system that uses hand-marked ballots. The General Assembly passed a bill in 2024 that would eliminate the use of QR codes to count ballots, but it included no funding or guidelines. The Joint Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee meets again on Sept. 3.