Raffensperger on DHS claims about alleged noncitizen voters in Georgia

[00:00:00]We're going to bring in Georgia Secretary of State, someone I know well, Brad Raffensburgger. Brad, it's great to have you with us. I appreciate your time.

[00:00:06]>> So, let me ask you, let me ask you about New Jersey. I know you're the Secretary of State of Georgia. You tend a lot of your time necessarily on Georgia matters and you don't opine broadly about other states. However, people are going to hear this and they're going to jump to some conclusions. I'd like your thoughts on it.

[00:00:24]New Jersey Governor Mikey Cheryl said yesterday, three years ago, through a computer glitch, some 6,600 non-citizens were registered in New Jersey and some 400, maybe a little bit less than that, actually cast ballots. How alarming was that in information to you? And what do you think it does say or doesn't say about the relative security of state procedures?

[00:00:50]>> Well, several thoughts. Number one is the data that was provided by DHS said there's about 35,000 36,000 and now it's down to 6600. So it's about 20% correct, but the answer really should be zero.

[00:01:04]And we've been one of the leading proponents. We're the first uh uh state that has ever done citizenship verification. We did that because there was a concern by voters. So we ran our numbers with Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration and it took about nine months. It was a very long and painful and expensive process. But as we went through that, we learned how we could help them really streamline that. I wrote Christy Nome a letter when she became DHS secretary.

[00:01:30]Here's a three-pager letter. Here's the process if you do this and plus wave that cost, that fee that you're charging us. You know, it could really help all states do that. And we've now are actually on our third run through on verifies by verifying citizenship. And like uh DHS put out last week about Georgia, they said there's 2,600 folks.

[00:01:51]We've never seen that number before. We saw a thousand. And yet uh when we run through our numbers, we see no more than 150.

[00:01:59]And so that goes to something that was a concern raised, Brad, after the president's prime time address that there were some possibly legitimate issues the president raised, but the rhetoric around it was unhinged from reality. And the numbers in New Jersey confirmed around 6,600, much less than the 30,000 or more alleged by DHS. The allegations in Georgia much larger than you've actually found on the ground.

[00:02:25]That creates confusion, does it not?

[00:02:29]>> Well, that's why we got out there and we very proactively uh tried to figure out where did that number of 2600 come from.

[00:02:35]We had never heard that before, but we've done and we've done our work and we have 150. Now, we'll run that back through DHS again. In fact, one of the things that frustrates us is we had a good program working and this was available for both Republican and Democratic states uh that we would have information available to us with DHS and we work back and forth. Sometimes their data is not up to date. Sometimes the state's data is not up to date. Working together, we can iron that out and get that number down to exactly how many non-citizens actually end up on a voter list. And that's really important. Now, once we find out if there's any on, we need to get them off and we need to prosecute folks and find out how did they get on and is it a national voting, you know, uh, registration drive that someone's doing or what is that process?

[00:03:20]What did we have a glitch? And in Georgia, we're continuing to look at that, making sure we have, you know, zero non-citizens on our vote list. That means you'll have zero non-citizens voting in your elections.

[00:03:31]>> Does Georgia need the so-called SAVE Act at the federal level? Actually, we already have it really. We have Real ID, we have citizenship check, and then we have early voting and we have 17 days of that. And we have photo ID with our early vote with uh all voting that we have. We have that also with our absentee voting. We're the first state to do photo ID for absentee voting. Primarily, people are using their driver's license. So, no matter how you vote, we accept the same forms of identification. And we think that has elevated trust and also security in the process. We feel good where we are. I just say copy Georgia and you're going to get it right.

[00:04:12]And when the New Jersey Governor Mikey Cheryl says, "Look, we saw this. We brought it to the public's attention.

[00:04:18]We're in the process of fixing it. Your vote and your process in New Jersey is secure." Do you think that is a generally credible approach?

[00:04:29]>> I believe so. And then just circle back in a month or two after you've gone through that again and just let voters know here's where we are and just let them know that all the issues that you did have on something that went back three or four years, you've cleaned that up and you now move forward. I think that's the right way to handle it and I'm glad that they came forward so quickly.

[00:04:51]And the issue in New Jersey was even when people filling out their driver's license application said they were non-citizens, the internal software glitch even recorded them as they were citizens, therefore eligible to vote. So that's not an intent problem. That's not like a conspiracy of people trying to get a ballot when they didn't deserve one in the first place. They were being forthright and saying, "I'm not a citizen." But the glitch put him on the line. So that's a software issue, not an intent issue. That seems to me relevant.

[00:05:22]>> Exactly. Very relevant.

[00:05:25]>> And that goes to this question that people have about is there a sort of rush for people to try to get ballots that they don't otherwise deserve. Is your experience in Georgia that true that that's true or less true?

[00:05:40]I think most non-citizens understand if they actually register to vote that's a violation of law and that can jeopardize you becoming an American citizen down the road. And then if you just compound that by actually voting that is even a much higher level uh because we we'll definitely prosecute that with a local DA. Uh they will not we will not tolerate it. So you'll have lawful action against you and you definitely then are not going to get your American citizenship down the road. So, I think people understand the penalties of that.

[00:06:09]And so, uh, we're very clear that we want to make sure that only American citizens vote in Georgia and that's why we led on this effort here in Georgia.

[00:06:17]>> Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensburgger, always a pleasure, sir.

[00:06:20]Thank you.

[00:06:22]>> Thanks, Major.