ATLANTA — A week after a historic election in Georgia, the state’s secretary of state announced he would conduct a record 20 risk-limiting audits.
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Channel 2’s Richard Elliot reports Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the record number of audits was to make sure people fully understood how secure Georgia elections are.
Georgia’s outgoing secretary of state watched as randomly picked state employees rolled 20 ten-sided dice to generate a random number to begin a 20-county risk-limiting audit into last week’s historic election.
He says the audits aren’t really needed because the election was clean and secure, but he wants the public to be sure.
“Now let me be absolutely clear,” Raffensperger said. “I stand by the accuracy of the results, but many of my brethren have been raised under Ronald Reagan, and he said, ‘Trust but verify.’ And that’s what we’re going to do.”
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Raffensperger declined to run for another term. He instead ran for governor but lost in the Republican primary.
After the dice rolls, Elliot spoke to Raffensperger, and he had nothing but praise for his staff and county elections workers across the state.
“They’re just looking at the elections, nonpartisan, bipartisan, we love everyone,” Raffensperger said. “Our job is to do our job, and they put service before self. They run a great election.”
His office still has to deal with a runoff in south Georgia, and some of the fallout from a memory card mishap in Seminole County. But he insists his office worked hard to secure Georgia elections, even if election deniers still have issues with 2020.
He says he’s positive these 20 audits will prove to them, too, that Georgia has the safest and most secure elections in the country.
“But today, this is about making sure you have trust in the election process, and we’ll be done next Wednesday, and we’ll prove you the results,” Raffensperger said.
After the 2020 election, lawmakers removed Raffensperger from the state elections board.
Raffensperger is hoping with this new administration and new legislature, the next secretary of state will be put back on that board.
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