MOULTRIE – During a joint meeting of the Moultrie Kiwanis Club and the Moultrie Rotary Club, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger remarked on Georgia’s election system. His visit came the day after a federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop Georgia from using electronic voting machines.

“We started out Monday with an absolutely tremendous letter. … And this was a good letter,” Raffensperger said.

He said that he had written a letter to the new U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi back in February, “I said, ‘You know, the previous Department of Justice sued us over SB 202.”

He said that he also mentioned, in the letter, about Georgia losing the MLB’s All-Star Game and the upwards of $100 million Georgia spent on the lawsuit, which the tax-payers paid for.

Raffensperger’s letter, dated February 4, 2025, formally asked Bondi to withdraw the DOJ’s lawsuit, U.S. versus Georgia, regarding SB 202.

“This litigation was filed by the Biden Administration contesting provisions of Senate Bill 202, a commonsense election reform measure that has strengthened election integrity and voter accessibility since implementation,” according to the Secretary of State website.

Raffensperger said, “yesterday morning” and he showed and read from a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice’s website, “Attorney General Pamela Bondi dismisses Biden-Era lawsuit against commonsense Georgia Election Law, advancing President Trump’s mandate to end weaponization.

“’Contrary to the Biden Administration’s false claims of suppression, Black voter turnout actually increased under SB 202,’ said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. ‘Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us. Americans can be confident that this Department of Justice will protect their vote and never play politics with election integrity,’” Raffensperger read.

“She dropped the lawsuit. It’s over and so, we’re just really grateful for that,” he said.

He said his office was pretty efficient at what they did. He said in North Carolina there were 150,000 less people than in Georgia and their election division had 72 staff members. Also, he said South Carolina had half the population of Georgia and their election division employed 69 people.

“Guess what, we have less than 30 and we actually do more,” he said. “I will do twice as much at half the cost. And that’s what we do at the Secretary of State’s Office.”

Raffensperger said that Georgia actually has the best election system in the entire country. It also has the cleanest voter list because they are part of a multi-state organization, he said.

“I’m just really proud of what we’ve done together,” he said.

He said his department has partnered with the Department of Drivers Services, which validates a resident’s citizenship. The DDS also keeps up with addresses when residents move. He said this also helps keep Georgia’s voters list clean.

Raffensperger said that, according to a UGA poll done after the 2024 election, “98% of all Georgians said they waited less than 10 minutes. The average wait-time was two minutes. … That same percentage said that the poll workers were really well-trained. Darn right they were.”

He said the counties work hard and his department works with the counties and there are regional meetings. This ensures the poll workers’ training.

“In 2024, we had virtually no lines,” he said.

He also said that what many people weren’t aware of was that, after the 2024 election, his department audited the QR codes on the ballots.

“What we did is we did an audit of all 5.1 million ballots. The absentees, the early and the election day,” he said. “Out of 5.1 million ballots, there was only 87 errors, discrepancies. … They were all on the hand-marked paper ballots. The machines had zero errors. Not a single one.”

He told the audience they could trust the system. At the end of the day, he said, whatever candidate was on the ballot, they were going to win fair and square.

“And that’s our job. That’s our constitutional responsibility,” Raffensperger said.