Brad Raffensperger facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brad Raffensperger
Raffensperger in 2022
29th Secretary of State of Georgia
Incumbent
Assumed office January 14, 2019
Governor	Brian Kemp
Preceded by	Robyn Crittenden
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 50th district
In office February 10, 2015 – January 14, 2019
Preceded by	Lynne Riley
Succeeded by	Angelika Kausche
Personal details
Born	Bradford Jay Raffensperger (1955-05-18) May 18, 1955 (age 70)
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Tricia
Children	3
Education	University of Western Ontario (BS) Georgia State University (MBA)

Bradford Jay Raffensperger (born May 18, 1955) is an American businessman and civil engineer. He is a politician who has been the Secretary of State of Georgia since 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party. Before this, he served in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Raffensperger became well-known across the country after the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The president at the time, Donald Trump, lost the election. Trump claimed there was fraud and tried to change the results. On January 2, 2021, Trump called Raffensperger. He tried to convince Raffensperger to change the election results in Georgia to help him win. Raffensperger refused, saying Trump's claims were not true.

Raffensperger was reelected in 2022. He won against Jody Hice in the Republican primary and Bee Nguyen in the general election.

Early Life and Career

Brad Raffensperger studied civil engineering at the University of Western Ontario. He also earned a business degree from Georgia State University.

He is the head of Tendon Systems, LLC. This company works in engineering and construction. He built a large amount of wealth from his work in the private business world.

Political Journey

Serving Johns Creek

Raffensperger has always been a Republican. He served on the City Council for Johns Creek, Georgia from 2012 to 2014. A city council helps make decisions for a city. He left this role in 2014 to run for a seat in the Georgia House.

In the Georgia House

Raffensperger won his election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2015. In the state House, he helped create laws. One law stopped county officials from making personal money from tax liens. Before this, some officials could collect fees from these taxes for themselves. Raffensperger's law ended this practice. He also supported a plan to allow a county that had merged with another to become its own county again. This would have allowed part of Fulton County to form Milton County, Georgia.

Becoming Secretary of State

The 2018 Election

Raffensperger ran for Georgia Secretary of State in 2018. In Georgia, the Secretary of State is in charge of elections. This office also handles business registrations and professional licenses.

In the first round of the Republican election, Raffensperger came in first. Because no one won more than half the votes, he had to run again in a second round, called a runoff election. He won the runoff. During his campaign, he promised to make government simpler. He also supported laws that require voters to show ID. He wanted Georgia to use paper ballots when replacing old voting machines.

In the main election in November 2018, Raffensperger got the most votes. He won against John Barrow, a Democrat, in a runoff election in December 2018.

Keeping Voter Rolls Fair

In 2019, Raffensperger decided to remove about 300,000 names from the voter registration lists. This was challenged by Stacey Abrams, a Democratic leader. Raffensperger won the case. In 2021, he removed over 100,000 more names. This was done using data from a national system called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

Some groups, like the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), sued Raffensperger's office. They argued that mail-in ballot applications should also be sent in Spanish in Gwinnett County. This is because many Spanish-speaking people live there. A judge dismissed the lawsuit. The number of Latino voters in Georgia has grown, and more are voting.

The 2020 Elections

Primary Elections During COVID-19

In 2020, the Georgia primary elections were moved twice because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were first moved from March to May, then to June. During these elections, Raffensperger tried to make sure voting went smoothly. He wanted to prevent problems with new voter check-in tablets, which had caused long lines. Voting rights groups wanted paper backups in case the tablets failed. They sued Raffensperger, and a judge ordered paper backups, but this order was later stopped.

To help people vote safely during the pandemic, Raffensperger sent mail-in ballot applications to all 6.9 million active registered voters for the June 2020 primary. Some Republicans in the state House tried to stop this. They thought it would hurt Republicans. Raffensperger disagreed, saying it was the safest way to protect voters during the pandemic. The plan to ban sending applications did not pass.

The November General Election

For the November 2020 general election, Raffensperger did not send out mail-in ballot applications to everyone. He said it was too expensive. Instead, he created an online way for voters to ask for absentee ballots. He also encouraged people to vote early in person or by mail.

The November 2020 election in Georgia went well. Raffensperger said this was because many people voted before Election Day. Joe Biden won the state, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since 1992.

Standing Firm on Election Results

After the election, some Republicans, including Georgia's U.S. senators, criticized Raffensperger. They said he had "failures" and asked him to resign. They did not show any proof for their claims. This happened after President Trump spread false ideas about the election. Raffensperger refused to resign. He said he was focused on Republicans keeping control of the U.S. Senate.

Under pressure, Raffensperger ordered a hand recount of all five million votes in Georgia's presidential race. Biden was ahead by about 14,000 votes. Some people said Raffensperger ordered the recount because of political pressure. Raffensperger denied this. He said that Senator Lindsey Graham pressured him to throw out mail ballots that favored Biden. Graham denied this, but another election official confirmed Raffensperger's statement. Raffensperger also called a Republican congressman, Doug Collins, a "liar" for falsely claiming fraud.

The hand recount confirmed Biden's win. Biden received 2.47 million votes, and Trump received 2.46 million votes. The difference was 12,670 votes. On November 20, Raffensperger officially confirmed the results. Governor Brian Kemp then certified the state's electors. Trump continued to make false claims. Some of Trump's supporters threatened Raffensperger and his staff. One official, Gabriel Sterling, publicly asked Trump to stop inspiring violence.

In March 2021, a new state law was passed. It removed the Secretary of State's role as the head of the state election board. Control of the board was given to the state legislature.

The Famous Phone Call

On January 2, 2021, a recording of a phone call was released. It was an hour-long call between President Donald Trump, Raffensperger, and other officials. In the call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to change Georgia's election results. Trump told Raffensperger, "I just want to find 11,780 votes." Raffensperger repeatedly refused Trump's requests.

After the call was made public, some leaders asked the FBI to investigate if Trump had broken any election laws. Raffensperger said that Trump "did most of the talking" on the call and that Trump's claims of voter fraud were "just plain wrong." In a letter to Congress, Raffensperger explained why Trump's claims were false.

Days after the call, on January 6, 2021, a group of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol. This happened while Congress was counting the electoral votes to confirm Biden's victory. The U.S. House of Representatives later voted to impeach Trump. The impeachment document mentioned the call with Raffensperger. It said Trump's actions on January 6 followed his earlier attempts to change the election results, including the call where he asked Raffensperger to "find" votes.

Raffensperger spoke at public hearings for the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack on June 21, 2022.

The 2022 Election

Raffensperger was reelected for a second term in 2022. Trump had supported another candidate, Jody Hice, who believed Trump's election fraud claims. Despite facing strong opposition, threats, and false information, Raffensperger decided to run again. He said, "If the good walk off the field and leave the field to the bad, then the bad wins."

Raffensperger won enough votes in the primary election to avoid a runoff. He then defeated the Democratic candidate, Bee Nguyen, in the November general election.

After the election, he suggested that Georgia should stop using the runoff system for elections.

Looking Ahead to 2024

In early 2023, Georgia's state legislature did not approve Raffensperger's request for $25 million. This money would have been used to update the Dominion Voting Systems machines before the 2024 elections. Raffensperger said that any security problems with the voting software were not serious. He believed no update was needed because hackers would need physical access to the machines. However, some cybersecurity experts disagreed. They said that paper print-outs of ballots and updated software are important for security and trust in election results.

On July 29, 2024, Raffensperger added a new online way for voters to cancel their registration. Some groups worried this could be misused. On August 5, a cybersecurity expert found a weakness in this system. It allowed people to cancel registrations with very little information. This showed the need for better election security.

Later in 2024, Raffensperger decided to put Claudia De la Cruz and Cornel West on the ballot for president. This was after a judge had said they should not be on the ballot. This was the first time since 1946 that Georgia had more than four presidential candidates on the ballot. However, a judge later removed West and De la Cruz from the ballot again. The Georgia Supreme Court confirmed this ruling. Raffensperger said there wasn't enough time to reprint ballots. Some Republicans wanted West and De la Cruz on the ballot, thinking they would take votes from Kamala Harris. Democrats wanted them off, believing their presence would help Trump.

Election Results

Family Life

Brad Raffensperger is married to Tricia. They have three children and two grandchildren. He is a member of the North Point Community Church.

Raffensperger has four siblings. There have been false claims that he has a brother named Ron who works for China. However, Raffensperger's only brother is not named Ron and does not work in or for China. There is a different person named Ron Raffensperger who is a business executive, but they are not related.