BLACKSHEAR — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger takes his job seriously.
He has utilized a team concept to run his department as a business since taking office in 2018.
“It’s really not an office for someone that’s just been a lifelong politician,” Raffensperger said to those in attendance during Tuesday’s (February 18) Waycross Rotary meeting at the Okefenokee Country Club. “I thought this is a perfect office to be situated for someone coming out of the industry. It’s all about the people in the organization — building a team.”
Not only does he oversee voting, he handles business licenses and nursing licenses.
“Big businesses are wonderful,” Raffensperger said, “but, they’ll be able to take care of themselves. I’m concerned about small businesses. When you’re a small business owner, you worry about the economy and a lot more local things.
“Small business is really important. It really meshes well with what we can call ‘rural development.’ We have good old-fashioned values, everyone’s neighborly and everyone’s kind.”
The Secretary of State also touched on licenses for nurses. There are 933 licensed practical nurses and 882 registered nurses in the state.
Third are general contractors. There’s also plumbers, electricians, hairdressers, barbers, cosmetologists and other kinds of professions.
“We have over 2,900 licensed professionals,” said Raffensperger. “We need license reform. Hairdressers and barbers have to renew every two years.
What’s really changed in that profession in the last two years?
“They have to do five hours every two years. What if they did five hours every four years? Then we still charge them the same amount of money for four years as we did for the two so they can cut that in half.
“The governor (Brian Kemp) tried to make a change in 2011. I supported it then when I was a member of the House (of Delegates). I think when it gets to his desk he’ll think it’s a good thing.”
His final item was elections. Raffensperger said during his first campaign in 2018 he talked about making sure only American citizens voted in our elections.
“That’s something I believe in,” he said. “There’s two things you never should devalue — American citizenship and the American dollar versus America. We should be proud of who we are, and I think we should value our citizenship.”
Raffensperger shared how Georgia is now part of a multi-state organization sharing information with our bordering states to keep up with those moving in and out.
“We passed the election Integrity Act of 2021,” he said. “We added photo ID and we primarily use driver’s license number. We accept the same forms of identification for absentee voting as we do for in person voting. We now know that they truly are who they say they are.”
To combat long lines on Election Day, approximately 77 percent of Georgians took advantage of early voting in November.
“Many of our counties were done by 10:30 (p.m.),” said Raffensperger. “The press didn’t believe we were done that early. We run the very best elections along with Florida.”
The reasoning for getting voting totals quicker was the number of machines each county has.
“We’ve worked hard training county election officials,” said Raffensperger. “Over 90 percent of all voters trust the process, and that’s the highest in the country. I believe in free, fair and fast elections. I think they need to be accurate.”
As for registered voters, he said there is a bilateral exchanging of information with neighboring states. The Georgia Department of Driver Services is sharing their information when they get notification from the other 40 states that are part of this nationwide compact.
“We know when somebody here moves to Montana, Utah, North Carolina,” said Raffensperger. “We can put an end to any potential double voting. If we find out about it (double voting) we will prosecute you.
“We have approximately 800,000 people that move in every year. Guess what we’re tracking? I really have a better handle on what it is. There’s about moving around the state so we’re checking people. I want to make sure we have an updated list in tracking this movement.”
