Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, was sitting at his kitchen table with his wife when President Donald Trump called with an urgent demand: Change the election results.
Details of that famous call in January are the centerpiece of Raffensperger’s book published Tuesday, “Integrity Counts.” Raffensperger refused Trump and upheld Georgia’s vote count, earning him the scorn of many Republicans whose values he thought he shared.
Raffensperger’s book, released on this year’s Election Day, makes clear how he views Trump’s badgering for him to “find” nearly 11,780 votes — one more than he needed to overcome his deficit to Democrat Joe Biden. Raffensperger’s account of the call could be used as part of ongoing criminal investigations and congressional hearings.
Trump’s phone call is now being reviewed by a Fulton County grand jury to consider whether to bring charges against him that could include criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with performance of election duties, conspiracy and racketeering.
“For the office of the secretary of state to ‘recalculate’ would mean we would somehow have to fudge the numbers. The president was asking me to do something that I knew was wrong, and I was not going to do that,” Raffensperger writes.
Credit: Amazon
Credit: Amazon
Raffensperger hasn’t yet been subpoenaed, but his book is the most thorough summary he’s provided of what he might say.
Raffensperger writes that Trump’s intentions were clear when he said that he and Ryan Germany, general counsel for the secretary of state’s office, were taking a “big risk” if they didn’t report purported fraud.
“President Trump is using what he believes is the power of his position to threaten Ryan and me with prosecution if we don’t do what he tells us to do. It was nothing but an attempt at manipulation,” Raffensperger writes.
Georgia’s ballots in the 2020 election had been counted three times by the time Trump called, twice by machine and once by hand. Dozens of investigations before and since have found no evidence of tampering to alter election results, and Georgia court cases over the election have been thrown out.
The book arrives as Raffensperger is preparing for a difficult reelection campaign against pro-Trump Republicans who blame him for last year’s elections. His GOP challengers include U.S. Rep. Jody Hice and former Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle.
Belle Isle plans to use the book against Raffensperger as counterprogramming during an upcoming campaign tour. Belle Isle accused Raffensperger of overseeing “a mess” of an election. Hice hasn’t commented on Raffensperger’s book, but he has Trump’s endorsement.
“Integrity Counts” outlines Raffensperger’s background as a Ronald Reagan-type Republican and small-business owner of a company that supplies high-strength steel for construction projects.
Raffensperger discusses his faith, his time in the Georgia General Assembly and his unwelcome moments in the spotlight during the 2020 election.
“I chose integrity and truth,” Raffensperger writes. “We all have decision points in our life. If you haven’t already, you will come to that proverbial fork in the road someday and have to make the same decision — do what is right, or choose what is expedient.”
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