Raffensperger on the Need for Integrity

On today’s podcast, Sarah and Steve are joined by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. ...

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On today’s podcast, Sarah and Steve are joined by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In 2020, Georgia was at the center of claims of voter fraud that kept President Trump from returning to the White House, and before that in 2018, the state was the site of claims of voter suppression that kept Stacey Abrams from the governor’s mansion. Raffensperger, author of the new book Integrity Counts, tells our hosts why Americans should have confidence and trust in our country’s elections.

Show Notes:

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  1. Ryan

    Let me start by saying I think all the fraud claims are nonsense.

    That said I don’t think Raffensburger messaged the security measures around the machines terribly effectively. Being disconnected/air gapped is only part of the security. I know that there are strict chain of custody requirements for voting machines because that is the other half of the coin. I just wished that was also part of his answer that he clearly sounds like he has had to give repeatedly.

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  2. B Phillips

    I personally don't feel very reassured after listening to this. So the answer to future election interference is "count on the people in charge to be highly ethical"? Or "finding votes" is illegal? Really?

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  3. linda

    Alright, then. 28,000 Never Trumpers didn't vote for Trump but somehow managed to vote GOP down ballot. My kind of people. This is the Few, the Brave, the Marines of the GOP. OORAH!

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    Martin Sulkanen

    So…if it becomes clear in 2024 that the Trumpists have effective control over the electoral votes in critical states - AZ, GA, MI, PA - what will be done to stop the fix?

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    Bill Withers

    pronunciation quibble: raf-enz-berg-er NOT raf-senz-berg-er

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    Dguaspari

    Do you feel a tad embarrassed about the way the TrueBill add insults your listeners? It claims (a) that its services save people an average of $720/year (wildly implausible); (b) that its 2 million customers save $100 million (which means, by definition, an average of $50 -- and is at least within the realm of possibility).

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    Patrick O'Rouke

    Can we start ending all Dispatch podcasts with “Go Dawgs!”? I would also accept “How ‘bout them Dawgs?!?”

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    Ben Connelly

    Good interview. I like this guy.

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    BWG

    I just heard the news about Chris Wallace. Please invite him to join The Dispatch in some capacity as a regular commentator!

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    Pat Riot

    Raffensperger may well have done what he did, at least in part, because he thought it would be a good *political* move for himself along side of being the right thing to do.

    Yes, based on the evidence before him--say if he had Pat Riot on his staff as a political advisor--his actions meant the end of his political career.

    But in the moment, and buoyed with some wishful thinking, he probably surmised that his stand on principle would be a *good* thing for that career.

    The problem is the next time, because the next Raffensperger will need to willfully throw his own life-long career in the garbage can in order to save our Constitutional republic. I would like to think that *this* Raffensperger would have still done the right thing, but statistics aren't on our side in that regard.


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      Patrick O'Rouke

      There are definitely Republicans in Georgia (cough, David Shafer, cough) making their decision in this case solely based on their electoral career. But Brad Raffensperger isn’t one of them. He was probably the Trumpiest guy on the statewide ballot in 2018. I know because I voted for a Democrat instead of him precisely because he was so Trumpy. If anyone had their finger on the pulse of the crazies, it was him. So I think we kind of have to take him at his word that he did his job because it was his job and he actually is a man of integrity. He’s earned my voted this time around, hopefully twice.

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        Pat Riot

        Lots and lots of Trump supporters wrote Trump off after the Access Hollywood tape, and then after every other "bimbo eruption" of Trump's, only to find that the Party successfully whitewashed the action and made it not matter. The 1/6 insurrection is no exception. Days after the coup attempt, many Republicans were so shocked by events that they said, "this is it" when it comes to Trump. They assumed that he had *finally* gone too far. I can easily see a politician like Raffensperger making that same calculation.

        But Trump's continual triumphs over these scandals (crazy that we have to call an insurrection against the United States merely, "a scandal") moves the Overton window over another notch.

        Today, if Raffensperger had to make that same decision, he'd know that *he* would be the only person to pay a political price if he acquiesced and absolutely nobody--but a bunch of Democrats--would care that he did the so-called "right thing".

        Again, I don't know Raffensperger personally as many here do, and I'll except that testimony for *him* in particular, but statistically speaking the odds of there being another Raffensperger have dropped to almost zero.



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