Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Holds Election Day Briefing

Any other questions from you? We're going to do one more thing. I'm not going to do one more thing. We're going to do one more thing. Two people. Yeah, it's right now. It'll get over. It'll get over. Thank you very much. Oh, yeah. You got it. And then this test. No, I'll go back to this. Because that one is actually. I'm sure they got proof. I didn't get any proof out of that. You're real. I have to say. It worked out hard. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Yeah. I was like, she's laying on the field. Tradition. We've been here a year. That's a great question. If they wanted Paul, they settled for me. Thank you. It is a little different because I do a lot of feature-y stuff and a lot of shots, and Paul is also a lot of fun. Because Paul is really good at it. We're on stream now. I'm talking, I do have a mic I can talk you a question. It's 2.30, it's time for the Chinese students to be once again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you Shoulders and knees. Yeah, it's just the situation. Sorry, sorry. You could give me a punch check I can give you a mic check. very Who would like a mic check? much. I'm going to talk about it like this because this is about how loud he was talking. Everybody ready? I'm ready. You got about three Three or four minutes to go, hopefully. Yeah I just made that number up. That's just my joke I'll turn it up just a little bit. Everybody's on politics today. I don't know how much it's still playing, but it's getting larger and fitting as we do. But how do we turn this into an oral song? Wow. It's been coming up with boosted vibes. Mm-hmm. It's weird. And, um... We're going to have to set it up. So now you're going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. So now I'm going to have to set it up. Thank you. Today is coming. So for the most part, yeah, they are much respected. Occasionally, I've brought something from those days, but I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. I don't have it right now. There's a pretty certain time. I see my little truck right there. Hey, Dr. Joe, is that going to go about a recording on 8-2-9-7-7-8-9-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1- All right. All right. So, yes. All right, let's go. Thank you. I know, I went through with something on that earlier this week, that for the youths, our people are actually demonstrating, and we don't have a day to reverse that. I just want to go away, I want to introduce, just like, the latest, how the numbers are on the price list, and what it takes for time, and it was already out there this year, so, I'm pretty excited. Thank Thank you. you very much. But, you know, they're not going to forget us. They're not going to forget us. I'm starting to speak now. Yeah, that's right. Thank you. You know, like really, but. So they do need some cuts, you know, first and then, but they need some of it. I can't believe you're telling me the last time I used it. I know, it's that act of a discussion. It doesn't matter. Yeah, but it's definitely not bad. It's like taking it off. You know, you've got to go to a shop. Oh, I remember that. I remember that. I had a bad bit here. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our money goes to the right person. But we're forsaken. They put it back on us. They had us for seven years now. Thank you. So they bought, yeah, they bought, they bought, yeah, they bought all the TV stations. Thank you. So I'm not going to do that all the time. I don't want to be doing that. I don't think I'll ever have to. Well, got to go. Got to go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, they had merged everything. They just needed one screen. Yeah, so the user note there was a newspaper. And it took me a long time. It took me a few years. And then they announced the sale. And they were like, we're going to screen it at AJC. And they were like, we're going to screen it at AJC. And they were like, we're going to screen it at AJC. And they were like, we're going to screen it at AJC. And they were like, we're going to screen it. Thank you. It's hot now. Thank you. All right, guys, about two, three minutes. Any other comments? All right. Robert? Sure. Actually, I do know that. It's another day in paradise. Thank you for that tip. Your choices are better than ours. Yeah, uh, actually it came from channel two. Yeah, at first. Then my editor saw it and asked me his excuse. Gotcha. Really? Because then they found out. Every second. She needs to go to the bathroom. They don't care. I don't know, like, she had a couple of months. You don't have a big fancy CNN sleeve to put on there? I bring Mad Dog as our centerpiece. Uh-oh. This beats a colored pig. Amen. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. We'll see what people think about the program. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. The new program? I don't like that. Yes. I don't like that. The new program. I don't like that. The same way like a politician would hold an election. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. They research. Yeah. And we have our kind of chain of house research that we can make and see what kind of stories people are interested in and what they're interested in. It wouldn't be surprising. Yeah, I see that. I don't say I'm just in line with it, you know, which is good for me. Is that the fault they're doing? I don't go to my company with it. It goes higher. All right. Whether I can reach the play button or not. Thank you. It's affordable, you know, and that's the only way it works out. Get out of your wallet. I think this is the first time I've seen you since you got your new job. First time I've seen you. Thank you. DJ, I did an interview. Thank you very much. I think it's interesting, but I think it's kind of walking, but I got too frustrated with it, but everybody, it's pretty much the same, you know, but it's not so much easier to, the movement of it is just movement, you know, which is not bad, but I think it's pretty more, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I just kept saying, do you come back to the price you paid? Thank you. It does. It does. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. I don't understand it. Yes. People ask me about that story. I have no idea what's going on. I don't know it. I don't know what person you spent two months working on. I'm starting Thank you. I was just like, I didn't expect it to be there. to Thank you. speak I see the last one. Come on, say it. Yeah, so I just took him to vote, so I'm in there, and I'm like, oh. now. I don't know what the question is. He's in pre-K, I don't know, I'm not sure. What are you talking about? He's in pre-K. He's in pre-K. He's in pre-K. Yeah. A lot of the kids were in the big camps. This friend of mine ran around with a Jaguar, he was a cheetah. My nephew was a Tiger. I have no idea. Not that I'm aware of any show. I don't know. Good morning. I don't think we're going to be able to turn anything around. At this point, we're not turning something around. You know, they record that section if you want them to turn it around. Thank you. What's going on there? I'm starting to speak now. Could be embarrassing. You hanging out here all night, Matt Dobbs? Yeah. It's a good gig. Yeah, it is. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take it. We don't have a reporter either. It's just a kind of baby sitting there. All right, I can hear that letter. All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. I just got back from our Cobb County office. We did some information for the press up there about parallel monitoring. So we always do an awful lot of tests and verify through this process, and that's really important. So, right now, I want to get you up where we are. Right now, we're about 775,000 folks that have voted around 2.30, just a few minutes ago. And I want to kind of advise people, a few voters have reported misleading text messages circling today. And so, as a reminder, be vigilant. You can trust mvp.myvoterpage.sos.ga.gov to have the most accurate information about elections. Also, Rockridge Elementary and Gwinnett, they closed for under seven, for under 10 minutes, it's actually seven minutes, due to a school safety drill. Yeah, that's real. I don't write this stuff, it just kind of happens, but it is what it is. So a judge will decide if that location should stay open later, but that would not affect the reporting times tonight, where all the early ballots would still need to be reported by 8 p.m., and it'll continue on with whatever happens today in the elections. The average wait time right now is less than five minutes across the state and we just think that's a tremendous trust builder. It just really makes the process a lot of fun. That kind of gets up where we are right now based on the numbers it looks like we could have you know in that range of 1.4 1.5 million because we know it always kind of peaks you know when people get off of work but But, uh... people are obviously engaged in the process. But also, I am just really honored today to be joined by two of my task force members, Mayor Shirley Franklin from Atlanta and then Senator Saxby Chambliss. And they've been kind of digging into the whole election process for several years now, and they just really speak wisdom, but also I think they are. Voices that you can trust and I just wanted to ask if they'd like to say a few words. Mayor? Well, thank you. Thank you very much. The first word is for anyone who hasn't voted, please vote. I'm going to vote. The democracy depends on you voting. Your vote is your voice. But I've joined former mayor Former Governor Barnes and former Congressman Ferguson and former Senator Saxby Chambliss really to promote the integrity of voting and the voting process and we've worked with the Secretary of State in his office to review the process so that every Georgian knows that their vote is safe and that they are welcome at the polls. So, it should be a good day. I think so. Well, thanks, Shirley, and it is a great day today. We were just talking coming over here. We had about 2.7 million early voters this time around, versus two years ago it was 2.2. And so we're seeing that more people are turning out again early, which is a good sign. In the meantime, we'll see you then. 2 And with the fact that we're going to hit 4 million plus again. 2 0 0 0 0 0 Indicates the fact that people in the state 0 0 0 0 who are casting votes have confidence in the fact that number one, 0 0 0 0 0 6 the process is working, their vote is going to count, 6 7 6 7 6 and at the end of the day that the election is validated. 6 6 7 6 6 So it's a privilege to be. 6 6 In the concert of Mayor Franklin and Governor Barnes and Congressman Ferguson, working with Secretary Raffensperger and his team to just figure out what's going on around the state and has been a real pleasure to find out things are working. These guys are really professionals here at the Secretary of State's office, and they've got the latest technology that they're operating with, and at the end of the day, we're going to have, hopefully, if we've only got a few hours to go, a calm... Wind up of today's election day, and we look forward to the results starting coming in right after 7 o'clock. Thank you. Do we have any questions? You mentioned the Norcross School. We also heard this morning about the Mitchell County incident. Have you heard of any other issues at the polls? That's really been it. It's been really smooth. And I want to also, I just want to commend the counties for what they have accomplished this morning. I don't believe there's ever been a time in Georgia's history when we had only one precinct out of 2,100 didn't open up on time. Just one. Almost perfect, but that's tremendous, and we've been working with them, and they've been working on what they do, and I want to commend them for what they did, and it was only 10 minutes. And that poor fellow, he wishes we'd quit talking about Mitchell County today. But at the end of the day, set your alarm. What can I say? But we look at that, and I can't make that stuff up about the school safety drill. Like, I don't know what that was all about, but that was a seven-minute delay. But it's just remarkable, and so it's a smooth process. And as Mayor Franklin said. To the voters, if you haven't voted yet, get out and vote. This is your chance for your voice to be heard. We have trusted elections. And then after we're done, we're going to audit this election so you can trust it further. We're keeping those lines short for you. And that's why the average wait time is only five minutes. We're trying to take away all your excuses so you come out to vote. God bless you all. Thanks. Mr. Secretary, question for the mayor and the senator. You all were brought in. Because there were concerns. There was a trust issue. Do the two of you see a change in that by this year? Less of that concern about whether your vote is going to be counted correctly? Well, it is... First of all, it was a good idea for the Secretary of State and others to decide that it was important to have some oversight and advice in counsel. Each of us who've run for office know that there always are rumors about things going wrong. In my election in 2001, there were about 94,000 votes. I won that election with 181 votes to the majority. We come together because we care about the future of the state. We come together because we believe that democracy matters and democracy is stronger when everyone is involved. So the past is the past, the present now, we're on the right track. And your question is a valid, very valid question. There has been a lot of questions about the process, particularly over the last six or eight cycles, coming from Republicans and Democrats. I think that the answer, though, is pretty clearly indicated by the turnout. The turnout continues to increase, so people obviously are feeling confident about the fact that their vote's going to count. All of the polling that we have seen over the last four years as Shirley and I have been involved in a project looking at that, the polling continues to rise on both the Republican side and the Democrat side. About the validity and the integrity of the election. So, yes, I think we have seen an increase in that. Secretary Raffensperger, I know you were asked earlier if there were any issues reported about the DOJ monitors at the polls. Has there been any change to that? No. They've been here. I'd like to say from since the beginning of time, but they've been here for probably going on 30 years. Every cycle they come and they're just observers. We also have the Democratic Party, Republican Party. We also have Carter Center and we have other nonprofits that will be part of that, you know, just observing a process. And then obviously we have our post certified investigators that are out there visiting the various counties. So no, no issues whatsoever. So we love transparency because that builds trust. Yes, ma'am. I don't know how many yet, but we'll be continuing that investigation and just see when we get to the bottom of it, but that'll probably, just because it takes time, that'll be post-election. That's why we wanted to make sure that we got that out to everyone, let them know, go to MVP, my voter page, mvp.sos.ga.gov. We have trusted information on that site. And we have our IT team here. We also have other state resources here to make sure that, you know, things are safe and secure from all aspects. You told me yesterday your biggest concern was foreign actors today in Georgia. Any evidence of that whatsoever? No, they must be pretty busy with the Ukraine war right now, so they've got their hands full out there. That's a good thing. Yes, ma'am. There have been some issues with scanning mailers, Can you tell me what's happening and how that's being addressed? It was actually an early vote, about a thousand ballots. And so what they did is they're having some issues, so they just set those aside. It will not affect, you know, the time of releasing that information at the end of the day. They just wanted to, in the interest of caution, they've had that set aside and they'll, you know, finish that up later. Yes, sir. This is very good. About the presence of ICE agents in the polls in Georgia. I haven't heard about that today. I know during early voting they showed up in Whitfield County, I heard that report. But people need to understand, I've done three citizenship verifications. People were concerned, were there non-citizens on the voter list? Were there non-citizens voting? So we did some research, we did the hard work, and we did one in 2022, 24, and 26. And then the Department of Audits did an outside independent audit and they said that our list was 99.9% accurate. Any non-citizens we did find, and it was less than 224, I believe was the number, and we had 200 in that range, those people have been moved to real roles. After we verified that they were non-citizens, some were already American citizens, and some were referred to prosecuting attorneys because only American citizens can vote in Georgia. But it's not an issue in Georgia, and ICE would not find a productive use of their time. Thank you very much. I'm assuming rather than later today. Thank you very much. Okay, I think it's going to be closer to five. I'll let you hear it. I'll get an answer as soon as I can. All right. But they just need to be re-scanned. Thank you. It's really not an issue. One of those things that happens. You know, dirty. You need to go out of service. Okay. I don't know which day it would be, but during that. Hey, let me check. Somebody was supposed to be coming to stop me, but nobody told me what it says. I see it now, it just came through, it just came through, I just got it. Okay. Okay. If that's actually what you think, yeah. I'm, you know, I'm going to speak now. I don't know how they're going to do it, but I mean, at the end of advanced voting, they take the ballots out. Yes. It's like any piece of, any piece of equipment, you know. They have ended their use of the fan, as computers tend to do. As they do. Yeah, that's where he said that. I want you to wear that. Okay, so we should have started having some procedures. Oh, I see. I mean, all the early years, I was sure everybody would do that. Yeah. Just get you over to the door, there's a big box right behind you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the stipulation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're so short-handed on the problem. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I'm Ryan Tumper. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to start another roll. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to be Fulton County. Yeah. Oh, really? Nobody else? Just me. And here's Trey. She does. I'll be off the show. Are you ready to move or to stop it? And then y'all should have all the reports and stuff. This is the second secretary that's wrapped up. That's the last day of work. No, we're over there. You got a fresh one? A lot. They just said she didn't have one. I got it. I got it. I'm going to leave them here. I'll just kind of look it back. Yeah, I know. And one of our first books will be done with you guys in St. Augustine. Yeah, oh, okay. Now, all right. Well, I'm done. I don't know. Thank you. You're very welcome. Yeah, you're very welcome. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Or Sunday. Like last Sunday. No, I'm not. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, sure. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to grab this. Thank you. Yeah. Pretty weird. I think it's been weird, though. Yeah. We're trying to go. So we'll . We said there's not a budget. It shouldn't be there by then. So I'm interested in . Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what to say. So, yeah. Cool. Yeah, they want to clear the folks with taxes. I don't really, I'll be honest with you. I mean, I'm a good leader. So I'm going to be more than you. You know, I don't know. Wow. Yeah, I know. No. Okay. All right, I'll keep you posted, Bill. No, no, no. Yeah, thank you. Okay, bye-bye. We just got the latest numbers, 775,000 Georgians. So far today have cast an election day ballot. That's on top, of course, of the 2.8 million Georgians who already voted. The Secretary came to update us on the latest with that, but he also brought two guests. He brought former Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and former Democratic Mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin. For the past couple of years, they've been working to try to make sure there is confidence on both sides of the political aisle that this is a safe, secure election system. Something Senator Chambliss said struck me. He said simply, things are working. And that was the message here, not just in the days leading up to the election, but election day as well. Secretary Raffensperger said very quick lines, very limited waits. Here's what he said just moments ago. Fun, he said. We'll see if it's fun as we get into the evening. Get counting. Of course, the first ballots we will see counted, those early votes by Georgia law, they have to be reported statewide by 8 p.m. So we're going to get most of the votes, 2.8 million, counted an hour after polls close. Of course, the big question, how many people total show up on Election Day? That's something Republican strategists in particular are watching very closely. Honestly, earlier in the day, the secretary told us... He was projecting about 1.2 million. He said here in the past 10 minutes, maybe it could get up to 1.4, 1.5 million. That could be the difference between making a close race even closer for some of these statewide campaigns. We'll track it here at Election Headquarters throughout the afternoon, on to the evening. We're live at the state's election headquarters. Justin Gray, Channel 2 Action News. Thank you. I'm starting to crush it. We've got to wait until they call in.