ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he is more concerned about potential election interference from overseas than from the White House or federal agencies as Georgia prepares for Election Day.
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Channel 2 Action News asked Raffensperger whether he had concerns about interference from Washington, including from the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I do not believe that we’re going to be the focus of their concerns,” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger, who was pressured by President Donald Trump in a 2020 phone call to “find 11,780 votes” after Trump lost Georgia, said he does not expect extra attention from the president or his administration this year.
Raffensperger said he does expect U.S. Department of Justice election observers to be on the ground in Georgia counties. But he said potential foreign interference is a greater concern.
“I’m more concerned about threat vectors really offshore,” Raffensperger said. “And that’s when we really value our federal partners that can kind of alert us to some of these things. And that’ll probably start sometime tomorrow. We could have that.”
Georgia expects results to come in quickly
Raffensperger and Georgia Elections Director Blake Evans said changes to state election law mean the majority of Georgia’s votes should be tallied and publicly reported just an hour after polls close.
“You want to be home by midnight?,” Channel 2’s Justin Gray asked Raffensperger.
“Absolutely,” Raffensperger replied.
Raffensperger said the reporting deadline is written into Georgia law.
“That’s in state law. Counties don’t like to violate state law because then they come before the State Election Board for fines,” he said.
Media from across the country, along with international reporters, crowded into Raffensperger’s State Capitol office for an election briefing. Channel 2 Action News also spoke with Raffensperger one-on-one.
The first votes Georgians will see reported Tuesday evening will be the more than 2.8 million ballots cast during early voting and by absentee ballot.
Those results are expected to be reported by 8 p.m., as required by state law.
After 8 p.m., Evans said election officials will mainly be waiting for Election Day precincts to bring in their memory cards so the results can be uploaded.
For Election Day results, those memory cards have to be physically hand-delivered to county election headquarters for counting.
“Our machines are completely air-gapped, so nothing gets transmitted over the internet,” Evans said.
Georgia will conduct two types of post-election audits
The counting won’t end Georgia’s election verification process.
After Election Day, the state will conduct two different kinds of post-election audits.
Under a new state law, 20 races will undergo risk-limiting audits, including every statewide and congressional contest.
Georgia will also scan paper ballots using imaging technology to double-check that the QR-code votes match the candidate names printed on voters’ paper ballots.
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