Next Georgia election chief plans transition rollout

As we come back in the newsroom, the time right now is 2.07 on this Tuesday afternoon. I want to turn our attention now. We are seven days. Post-election, and there is going to be some big changes here in Georgia after voters decided to elect a number of Democrats, replacing Republicans who have held these seats for quite a long time. One of the offices changing hands, the Secretary of State's office. And Secretary of State-elect Penny Brown Reynolds is preparing to take office in January. And our Deidre Dukes joins us now live after speaking with her about what she plans for the years ahead as she is going to be in office I've been in the office for four years. Deidre, what can we expect from her? Yeah, it's going to be a very busy start for her because as you know, Tyler, we are right in the process now. State lawmakers are selecting a new vote system, voting system for the state of Georgia. So it will be her job when she takes office, once lawmakers vote on which system to implement, she will be the one who will be tasked with ensuring that election officials in all of Georgia's 159 counties and, of course, voters know how to operate that system. and are comfortable with it ahead of the 2028 presidential election. So a lot on her plate as she prepares to take office. In addition to the regular duties and responsibilities of that office as you. Since she won the election with the outgoing Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. so they would have their first face to face meeting. Today in her new role she said that would be a private meeting and that she was looking forward to having the opportunity to meet with him one-on-one privately as they start to discuss the transition that will get underway for the next several weeks heading into January's inauguration. She talked a lot about her transition team saying that she would be announcing that next week and that she's bringing together a whole host of people from across the state that she said will represent a huge swath of Georgians, including business leaders, veterans, farmers and educators to help really prepare her administration to take office in January. And here's what she had to say. The transition is so important because it gets us ready. January the 11th we'll all be inaugurated and sworn in. The legislative session begins and so we have to use this time to really lay the groundwork. So I'm proud to say that next week we will be rolling out our transition team, but my transition team is going to be a little different. It's going to represent everybody, all the constituents that matter to Georgia. So you're going to see veterans, you're going to see top business leaders, but you're going to see farmers, and you're going to see educators, because what we want to do is how do we engage our young people in college to make certain that they vote every aspect of what the constitutional right to vote, and also businesses and professions, because this office does more than just I oversee elections. I oversee businesses. We also oversee those 42 professions. That's your chiropractors and cosmetologists and all of those. We want to bring efficiency back. But I'm also the commissioner of securities as a part of what I do because I oversee securities in the state of Georgia. Brokers and making certain that we protect our seniors and those who are vulnerable from fraud. So we've got a tall order. I am well prepared. I have not slept. Since I won, because I've been thinking about what I wanted to do for the people and my transition team is going to reflect that. And as part of looking ahead, she says she also would like to improve the relationship between the Secretary of State's office and the state election board. So really just a lot of key priorities and things that she would like to accomplish as she gets working, starts to prepare for the work ahead in January, Tyler. See how all of this unfolds. But a lot of different people who have now been elected are going to be having to kind of change things up from what they were considering. We're going from Republicans in office in some of these different offices to now Democrats who are obviously going to be trying to do something different. So at Deidre Dukes, I know you're going to stay on top of this and bring us the very latest as we get closer to inauguration day for many of these people. Deidre Dukes live at the state capitol. Thanks so much.