DECATUR — Once again, all eyes are on Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

On Tuesday, the engineer-turned-election czar held a whirlwind day of meet-the-press talks, featuring CBS Evening News, a television crew from Sweden and the regular homegrown press corps that continuously chronicle his every move. 

The daylong event also was a chance for state officials to talk about how elections work, how ballots are cast and how votes are tabulated. They also addressed ongoing election-related conspiracy theories and efforts to increase public trust in the election process. 

Raffensperger, who appeared Tuesday night in the HBO documentary “Stopping the Steal,” also made an appearance at a DeKalb County election site to see how voting machines performed during a test-run.

Raffensperger, 69, unwittingly became a central figure in the 2020 election after Donald Trump placed a phone call to him shortly after the polls closed to get him to “find” 11,799 votes –– the number Trump needed to win Georgia and return to the White House.

Raffensperger, a Republican who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, rebuffed the president’s request. President Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia with 49.47% of the vote, over Trump’s 49.24% — a margin of 0.23%, or 11,799 votes. 

 Raffensperger now faces a new set of challenges — namely, a State Election Board that is making last-minute rule changes and additions that critics claim could enable local election offices to delay certifying votes if they suspect fraud or irregularities. 

The board, which has drawn national attention, is slated to meet Friday to consider more new rules.

Here’s what Raffensperger had to say on some key issues facing Georgia as it heads into the Nov. 5 general election. Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

What Georgia voters should know going into the election

“We want everyone to understand that those ballot machines are going to work for you. Those scanners, those vote counters, they’re accurate. So the only thing that you can really complain about is you didn’t work hard enough to knock on enough doors, make enough calls or send enough money. At the end of the day, we’re in a free, fair and accurate election.”

Election security

“We’ve been working hard with law enforcement folks, federal sources, and  other resources. We’ve had support statewide. But also we understand you prepare. When we’ve done these security table tops, we’ve actually done some role-playing and kind of gaming it out —  ‘What would you do about this?’ — so we can prepare our election officials for this, too. That’s why we have lanyards, they can press a button [for help]. That’s why we have a texting tool — see something, say something. We want to make sure that it is a safe environment.”

Voter turnout prediction

“We’ve told the counties to expect [voter turnout] to be north of 5 million. We had 5 million [voters] in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. In 2022, people went back to the historical way [of voting] — 60% were early voting, 30% were voting on Election Day. And there’s no reason to think that 2024 will be any different.

Certifying election results

Every county shall get certified by the Monday after the election. So whatever they want to do, if they want to come in on Friday or Saturday or Sunday [to get the certification done] … but by the end of day Monday they shall, by state law, be certified.

Enforcing the law if counties refuse to comply 

There’ll be other people that will probably be jumping on that, particularly the candidates, to protect their interest. At the end of the day, we expect people to do what is right.

On whether the State Election Board has overstepped its authority

Already it’s less than 90 days before the election and they’re making these last-minute changes, with more to come on Friday. I think that really just flies in the face of good sound election practice. Everything we’ve worked on [to ensure] free, fair and fast elections, and some of the things they’re  doing is flying in the face of what we’ve been working with the General Assembly on since 2019.

We have confidence that at the end of the day, whatever rules are passed will have to meet state law. The State Election Board does not have any authority to exceed what is in the state law or the state constitution. And so we’re very mindful of that. If they’re actually stepping over that line, it’s just not going to be the scrutiny of the court. We’re being sued by people on the left side and the right side right now. That doesn’t happen too often. I get sued depending on what cycle it is. At the end of the day, we won all those cases because we were following the law and following the constitution.

How he views his job right now

My job is to do my job, and our job is to have the counties do their job. The best way to let them do their job is to know what the rules are so they can train, retrain and train again, and go through it every day that they can possibly do that. Many counties are working with poll workers to get them trained as much as they can. Lines need to be short. We want to make sure that we actually get those results to you quickly. 

What keeps him up at night

The list is long. First, we want to make sure it’s a physically safe environment. So we prepare poll workers.They have a texting tool [that allows them to] ‘see something, say something.’ We also want the process to move through quickly for [voter]  check-in. Then we want to make sure that through the back office — cyber and then artificial intelligence — is that a deep fake? Did they really say that? No, they didn’t. Meanwhile, [the misinformation has] traveled all around the state 10 times. So there’s all these different things, but that’s why we just continue to put our head down and do our job.

His message to voters ahead of Election Day

Make a plan. How do you want to vote? If you want to vote absentee, you should already have your absentee ballot request in. Make sure you’re getting it in soon, because the postal service has a lot of issues. The Postmaster General said he’s working on this. I respect that, but I don’t know if he can turn that ship around that quickly. So [if] you receive your ballot, get it back quickly. If you’re driving by the county election offices on your way to work or on your way home, drop it off. They have drop off boxes. All 159 counties [have] one [drop-off box] for [every] 100,000 voters. If you’re going to vote early, you’ve  got 17 days. You’ve got a lot of choices. We have two Saturdays [to vote early]. Make your plan then go vote.

Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].

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A conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

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