Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Says Election Workers on Guard Ahead of 2024 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Tuesday that election workers in the state are on guard ahead of the upcoming election. 

Speaking at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia event in Atlanta, Raffensperger said the workers are on alert for threats in what he called a “pressure cooker” environment. 

He said that workers are preparing after a letter containing fentanyl was mailed to Fulton County’s elections office and after employees like Ruby Freeman faced harassment in the wake of the 2020 election. 

“We have all these things that keep us up at night. Our job right now is to be prepared for the 2024 election,” said Raffensperger. “Some people are just off-kilter. And I just think we need to get back to those values that our parents raised us with, the values of our country.”

He added that hundreds of election officials have also received the opioid overdose reversal drug known as Narcan. 

“We’re in a much better place than other states, but yet we still have some angry people out there,” Raffensperger said. “All that anger and vitriol, those thoughts of retribution, I don’t think that’s the American way.”

He also stressed that voters need to understand that the state will run “fair, honest, accurate elections” regardless of which party wins in 2024. 

Raffensperger’s comments come after his state was the subject of an attempt by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn election results in 2020. Raffensperger himself was the subject of harassment by Trump and at least one county in the state, Coffee County, saw a breach of voting machines.