Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rejected a claim from former President Donald Trump that it would take a week to count the votes there.
Speaking with Margaret Brennan on CBS News’s Face the Nation, Raffensperger said it will “absolutely not” take seven days to tabulate all of the votes in Georgia.
“As I understand it, nearly all votes cast in this upcoming election will be recorded on paper,” Brennan said, before Raffensperger interrupted her to say, “Absolutely, 100% will be.”
“Important point to establish, because yesterday former President Donald Trump said something that implies that because it can take time to tabulate votes, there might be something nefarious here,” Brennan said before playing a clip of Trump’s claim.
Trump at his rally said “We spend all this money on machines and then they announce ‘we expect to have the results like seven days after the election,’” before explaining his preference for paper ballots.
When asked if Trump’s description was accurate, Raffensperger said “In Georgia, 100% of all the votes cast will be on a paper ballot, but actually nationwide it’s going to be over 96% to 97% of all voting in America will be on paper ballots.”
“We also did put into law this year, SB189, that all early votes and all early accepted ballots, they all will have to have their results reported by 8 p.m.,” Raffensperger said. “That’s 70, maybe 75% of all the vote totals, will be reported no later than 8 p.m. on Election night.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says it will “absolutely not” take seven days to tabulate all the state’s votes, which former President Donald Trump recently claimed. He tells @margbrennan that all of Georgia’s early votes must be tabulated by 8 p.m. on Election… pic.twitter.com/ZxRjX8uUOt
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 20, 2024
When asked again if it would take seven days to tabulate votes in Georgia as Trump claimed, Raffensperger said “absolutely not.” He noted that the state will be waiting for ballots cast overseas, that will come in no later than Friday.
“I understand that we’re very competitive, that’s why we’ve done everything since day one to make sure we have fast, accurate, and secure elections for all of my voters here in Georgia,” Raffensperger said.
Georgia recently broke statewide records of voting turn out. On the first day early voting began, over 310,000 Georgia residents cast their ballot, which is up from the 136,739 who early voted on the first day available in the 2020 presidential election.
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As of Sunday morning, 1,377,314 ballots have been cast in Georgia, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab tracker. Raffensperger has encouraged Georgia voters to utilize early voting methods this election.
“I encourage everyone to vote during the early voting period to avoid long lines on Election Day,” Raffensperger said last week. “What if there’s bad weather? What if you’re coming down with a cold and can’t make it? I urge people to take advantage of early voting.”