We had some issues last year with
the runoff election being so,
so quick after the regular election
have you sort of statewide made
any changes to. No, we were just
we just were really clear with
with the General Assembly.
We think that if you if you poll and
ask voters what they think that they're,
they're ready for runoffs to be done,
you know and not have them.
So how do we do that?
What does that look like and if you
like the electing workers majority.
Large majority of them would like
to see us eliminate runoffs.
So what does that look like?
And the General Assembly just kind
of talked about it last session.
I'm probably sure they'll talk
about it next session.
Because when you have your race in November,
you're always going to have some races
that you were where you have a runoff.
It could be a state Rep,
state senator or it could be a,
you know, a statewide seat.
And then you have been rolling
right into Thanksgiving.
And then all the work that they
have to do to certify it just
ends up to being an awful lot.
But the counties will get it
done one way or the other.
But it's one of the things that
I think maybe the time has come
to look at eliminating runoffs
and Secretary I missed. What was
the reasoning behind today's visit
Just to the chamber has asked me to come
down, talk about like a legislative update.
But while I'm here,
obviously I want to drop by and
see all the people that do the
hard work of making sure we
run honest and fair elections.
And this is a great facility.
Y'all have a lot to be proud of.
Can you talk to me about what you're
looking to reform next in Georgia?
What do you want in place
before the 2024? I think
we're in pretty good shape legislatively
and and really this last session was pretty
much does it for the next cycle because
when you come into the next session,
it'll be 2024 and to get something
passed and into in place,
I think it's probably won't happen next year.
So it's really every other year when you
can look at any kind of modifications,
updates, further improvements in state law.
So we're really excited that
what we did get in place.
Was we got funding for
additional electronic poll pads.
So that is really speeding up the
the process of checking in voters.
We had last session the county last last
election when we had those in place for
the counties that already had them in place.
We're getting reports that we were
checking in voters and under a minute.
And so that'll just really helps accelerate
and keep those lines short and that's
really improves the voter experience.
So we're very voter centric also.
We now get time off work for early voting
and we think that's really important.
We're now we're seeing about 65%
of all Georgians are voting early.
And so whatever we can do to help,
you know, voters,
you know get time off so that
they can vote that that was a bill
that we wanted to support also.
So we think we're in good shape for 2024.
We're expecting big,
very big turnout numbers next year.
And so when we see facilities like this,
we're really excited that.
We think that we're going to
handle whatever is thrown our way.
They put a lot of effort into
transparency in this building.
How important do you think that
is moving forward to sort of
combat all the rumors and and
conspiracy theories? I think
whenever you can have additional
glass and transparency,
whatever going through the process,
I think it just gives voters that they
can ask a question then they get answered.
So it's very transparent because
I think what we've shown is that.
You know we're going to have an
accurate results and that many people
will be disappointed with that and
that other people will be happy and
we don't know how that going to go.
If we look at Governor Kemp and I
were reelected with really strong
margins and obviously Republicans
were very happy and maybe the other
side wasn't and then likewise in
2020 it was cut the other way.
And so we want people to have an
understand that we have and that's
why we are actually you know
the leader in election integrity
throughout the entire country.
We're ranked at the top of the ranks,
#1 for the cleanest voter rolls,
but also we have honest and fair elections.
I have a personal question too.
Why did you decide you wanted
to be Secretary of State? Well,
I'm an engineer, also business owner.
And really, when you look
at the office of Secretary of State,
first of all we want to
get new voting machines.
And I think it's really important that
we have something with a verifiable
paper ballot so we can audit any race.
So that's what we have now. So is really.
Doing something and engineers like to do
things and set goals and accomplish those.
So we did that. But also since I'm
a licensed structural engineer,
licensed civil engineer,
also a licensed general contractor,
licensing reform.
And that's why we this past
Monday we formed a Commission,
the Georgia Works and Election and
Licensing Reform Commission,
because we licensed a lot of
things and can we reform that
process to really speed it up.
So we're not, you know.
Putting in impediments from
people to enjoy their profession.
So that's one of the things in
the securities and charities,
making sure that whenever
people give money to a charity,
it truly is a charity and it's not a scam.
And so we've strengthened a lot of
that and we're really grateful for
the work of our securities division.
We're really focusing on making sure
that those were honest charities.
Making sure that the money
gets out to the mission field
secretary regarding the
Fulton County grand jury.
Have you been contacted by federal
investigators in the last couple
weeks or months at all Further.
No. I think that right now those things
are processes that are going on and they
don't tell us what they're going to
do. And you know all that.
We'll just wait and see
like like you in the press
and I've got to ask Trump was on a
scene in town hall he once again.
I that he called, you asked these
votes despite the reported phone
call and he's also still being
critical of Georgia's election.
What's your reaction to that?
Well, I basically said at every point
that he raised, we've disproven it.
But he said it in his phone call
that there's 5000 dead people and
they actually litigated sued us.
They said there's 10,315 and
we found a total of four.
He actually paid for report and the company's
called the Berkeley research report.
That company,
when they did their report, paid 600,000.
It's reported, they said there's
probably like 25 to 50 dead people.
So 425. Well, our number is right,
but it's no one was ever talking
about thousands of people.
They said there's 66,000
underage voters. Every, zero.
Every single allegation that was
ever raised proved to be false.
And what it really did is unfortunately,
it started tearing apart
of our social fabric.
And I think what really it gets
down to at the end of the day,
what people are looking for,
They're looking for integrity
because I think integrity matters.
It counts. And it also works.
I think we just saw that up in Kentucky.
Kentucky Secretary of State
Michael Adams is just one with
65% because he pushed back on
some of the fraud and some of the
myths that were raised there.
And I appreciate his courage.
So there's there's a group of us
that are pushing back because we
know that integrity does count.
And integrity always will work
because most people are good and
most Americans have integrity
and they're looking for someone
that mirrors their values.
And that's why I'm really excited
about what I see in Coweta County
and what I see it throughout the
counties but also at the state level.
We get the job done.
Now if you want to fuss about Washington,
DCI might tell you on that fussing,
but here we actually accomplish it.
We balance our budget.
We could do it all in a 40 day session.
And here in Secretary of
State's office, we've made
a lot of improvements so the last
four years and we'll continue
to look at how do we improve the
lives of our fellow Georgians.