Raffensperger touts licensing, election reforms to business leaders

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spoke with business and locality leaders at the Greater Perimeter Chamber s Signature Luncheon on April held with the Brookhaven Chamber Photo by Bob Pepalis More than people heard Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger discuss accomplishments made regarding elections licensing and business advancement in Georgia Raffensperger was the guest speaker at the Greater Chamber Perimeter s Signature Luncheon held with the Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce at Sandy Springs Studio Theatre on April Raffensperger announced when he first ran for Georgia Secretary of State he campaigned on the pledge to make sure only American citizens vote in elections The installation of Georgia s Real ID helps ensure that it can happen The voter ID requirement withstood U S Supreme Court scrutiny he commented The new ballot system was set up on time and under budget at approximately million well under the million limit Raffensperger announced in a visit to the Perimeter Chamber in Dunwoody in June that the voting was likely to see the same accusations of voter fraud made four years earlier He stated his office s job was to make sure the referendum was honest and fair In this latest visit to the Perimeter he noted time has proven that Georgia has secure elections State law now requires that precinct voting wait times must be less than one hour long Raffensperger s office examined Georgia s voting precincts and assessed which had problems and which were meeting expectations Counties used the assessment to improve and realign precincts In addition Georgians no longer have to wait overnight to learn unofficial ballot totals he declared What we put into state law with SB a year ago in the General Assembly Raffensperger disclosed was that all the early voting that you have and that s percent of all Georgians are voting early now and the five to seven percent that vote absentee all of that had to be published one hour after the vote closed After the presidential voting the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill that reduced the Georgia secretary of state s powers The General Assembly s law gave it the ability to appoint the majority of the State Balloting Board by removing the secretary of state as the chair Raffensperger noted he didn t believe this was a wise decision The State Balloting Board also gained the ability to fire voting process directors of counties but the person doing the firing is an appointed chairman not beholden to the voters Raffensperger stated The law also gave the State Voting process Board the power to oversee county poll boards with performance reviews over local elections management made by the state voting board county commission or a local legislative delegation Those reviews could consequence in the state board appointing a replacement to temporarily run local elections Until a bill was passed during the latest legislative session the governor appointed polling board members but they could not be removed if they failed to do their job With the new ordinance the governor will have that power Raffensperger declared he wants to make sure that Georgia remains a pro-business state as well as a great place to raise a family Why is that so key to you Because I believe that the free-market system is the gateway for higher economic outcomes for everyone Raffensperger explained In as a state legislator Raffensperger introduced a bill that allows a corporation to renew for up to three years He admitted that it wasn t his idea but that it came from a business owner With almost million corporations registered with the state new tool is needed because the system slows down in February when so plenty of businesses are renewing their licenses Raffensperger mentioned A new bill passed that will go into effect in July enabling Raffensperger s office to administratively issue licenses This licensing improvement should help because with different licenses under different boards delays can happen if the boards don t meet often enough Our largest group of license holders are nurses nurses out of the million that we oversee We think we have an obligation of duty to reduce those impediments Raffensperger noted Appealed for his thoughts on the Trump administration s DOGE Department of Establishment Efficiency and its prospective effect on his office Raffensperger declared he has already right-sized his office with less than people in his elections office North Carolina has so we ve already right-sized our office and we ve been doing that since day one Thousands of federal workers have been fired in the first month of Trump s administration New and career workers were removed as agency leaders were recounted to plan for large-scale reductions in force and freezes of trillions of dollars in federal grant funds Nearly probationary workers at the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention have shared being forced out of their jobs Emory planned to freeze all raises and limit spending because of concerns about federal research funding cuts Rough Draft Atlanta disclosed The Atlanta university received more than million in research funding from the National Institutes of Wellness in and is by far the largest research recipient in Georgia Emory stated that cutting the amount NIH gives to universities for research funds would cost the university an estimated million annually Raffensperger announced Georgia requirements to help leverage the entrepreneurial value of the people laid off from agencies like the CDC and Emory University He revealed the CDC and Emory have a bigger concentration of curative doctors and Ph Ds than anywhere else in the world If those diagnostic professionals are suddenly without work it could be a great opportunity for Georgia How do we leverage that for particular entrepreneurial venture that they can build a business here in Georgia Raffensperger questioned Responding to questions from the audience Raffensperger stated re-industrialization is a nagging matter for the state He noted the state can participate in efforts like the University of Georgia s work using robotics to improve the agricultural process Georgia businesses are also still trying to figure out the impacts of tariffs Raffensperger announced He announced he s seen economic distruption before having gotten through the recession from to and from supply chain delays caused by the pandemic Raffensperger assessed the Trump administration s early days in office by recognizing that illegal immegration at the Mexico-United States limit had been reduced greatly something he commented the majority of the country yearned We have a process a lawful process but we need to make sure that we re vetting people that come into this country Raffensperger explained The post Raffensperger touts licensing ballot reforms to business leaders appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta