Brad Raffensperger facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Brad Raffensperger
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Raffensperger in 2022
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| 29th Secretary of State of Georgia | |
| Assumed office January 14, 2019 |
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| Governor | Brian Kemp |
| Preceded by | Robyn Crittenden |
| Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 50th district |
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| In office February 10, 2015 – January 14, 2019 |
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| Preceded by | Lynne Riley |
| Succeeded by | Angelika Kausche |
| Personal details | |
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Bradford Jay Raffensperger
May 18, 1955 |
| 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 politician. He 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 after the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The former president, Donald Trump, lost the election and claimed there was fraud. Trump tried to change the election results in Georgia. On January 2, 2021, Trump called Raffensperger and asked him to "find" votes to change the outcome. Raffensperger refused, saying Trump's claims were false.
Raffensperger was reelected in the 2022 Georgia Secretary of State election. He won against Jody Hice in the Republican primary and Bee Nguyen in the general election.
Contents
Early Life and Education
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.
Political Journey
Serving Johns Creek City
Raffensperger has always been a Republican. He served on the Johns Creek City Council from 2012 to 2014. He left this role to run for a seat in the Georgia House.
Representing Georgia in the House
In 2015, Raffensperger won a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. While there, he worked on laws to stop county officials from making money from tax issues. He also supported a plan to allow parts of Fulton County to form a new county called Milton County.
Becoming Georgia's Secretary of State
The 2018 Election Process
Raffensperger ran for Secretary of State of Georgia in 2018. This job involves overseeing elections and business registrations in Georgia.
He won the Republican primary election after a second round of voting. During his campaign, he promised to make government simpler. He also supported voter ID laws and paper ballots for voting machines. In the main election, he won against John Barrow in a runoff election on December 4, 2018.
Voter Registration Updates
In 2019, Raffensperger removed about 300,000 names from Georgia's voter lists. He won a legal case against Stacey Abrams who challenged this action. In 2021, he removed over 100,000 more names.
A group called 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. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2020.
Managing the 2020 Elections
Primary Elections in 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia's primary elections in 2020 were moved from March to June. Raffensperger wanted to prevent polling places from printing paper backups of voter information. This was because new voter check-in tablets had caused long lines in June. Voting rights groups sued him and won an order for paper backups. However, a higher court blocked this order.
To help people vote safely during the pandemic, Raffensperger sent mail-in ballot applications to all active voters for the June 2020 primary. Some Republicans tried to stop this, but Raffensperger defended his decision. He said it was the safest way to protect voters during the pandemic.
General Election in November 2020
For the November 2020 general election, Raffensperger did not send out mail-in ballot applications to everyone. Instead, he created an online way for voters to ask for absentee ballots. He encouraged people to vote early in person or by mail.
The November 2020 election in Georgia went smoothly. Many people voted early or by mail. Joe Biden won the state, which was the first time a Democratic presidential candidate had won Georgia since 1992.
Challenges to Election Results
After the election, some Republicans, including Georgia's U.S. senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, asked Raffensperger to resign. They claimed there were "failures" without showing proof. This happened after pressure from Donald Trump, who spread false ideas about the election. Raffensperger refused to resign.
Under pressure, Raffensperger ordered a hand recount of all five million votes in Georgia's presidential race. Critics said this was due to political pressure from Trump. Raffensperger denied this, but he did say other Republicans were pushing him to remove legal ballots. He also said Senator Lindsey Graham pressured him to throw out mail ballots that favored Biden. The hand recount confirmed Biden's win. Raffensperger then officially confirmed the results. Some Trump supporters threatened Raffensperger and his staff.
In March 2021, a new law was passed in Georgia. It removed the Secretary of State's role as the head of the state election board. This power was given to the state legislature.
The Trump Phone Call
On January 2, 2021, a recording of a phone call between Donald Trump, Raffensperger, and others was released. In the call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to change Georgia's election results. Trump said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes." Raffensperger repeatedly said no to Trump's demands.
After the call became public, some leaders asked the FBI to investigate if Trump had tried to commit election crimes. Raffensperger said Trump "did most of the talking" and that Trump's claims of fraud were "just plain wrong."
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 election votes. The U.S. House of Representatives later voted to remove Trump from office for encouraging the attack. The official document mentioned the call with Raffensperger.
Raffensperger spoke at public hearings about the January 6 attack on June 21, 2022.
The 2022 Election
Raffensperger was reelected for a second term in 2022. Donald 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 he wanted to stay in the fight.
Raffensperger won the Republican primary without needing a runoff election. He then defeated the Democratic candidate, Bee Nguyen, in the November general election.
A week after the Senate runoff election, he suggested that Georgia should stop using the runoff system.
Looking Ahead to 2024 and Beyond
In early 2023, Georgia's state legislature did not approve Raffensperger's request for $25 million. This money was for a security update for the voting machines before the 2024 elections. The machines' QR codes are set to be removed by 2026.
In June 2023, Raffensperger stated that security issues in voting software were not major. He said no update was needed because hackers would need physical access to the machines. Some cybersecurity experts disagreed. They believe voter-verifiable print-outs and software updates are important for security and trust in election results.
On July 29, 2024, Raffensperger added a new online way for people to cancel their voter registration. Some groups worried this could be misused. On August 5, 2024, a security expert found a weakness in this system. It allowed people to cancel registrations with only a small amount of public information. This showed the need for better election security.
On August 29, 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 it. This was the first time since 1946 that Georgia had more than four presidential candidates on the ballot. However, on September 12, 2024, a judge again removed West and De la Cruz from the ballot. On September 25, the Georgia Supreme Court confirmed this ruling. Raffensperger said there was not enough time to reprint ballots.
Personal 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. Donald Trump falsely claimed that Raffensperger had a brother named Ron who worked for China. However, Raffensperger's only brother is not named Ron and does not work in China. There is a person named Ron Raffensperger who works for Huawei, but they are not related.
