Georgia elections chief writing book critical of both Trump and Abrams

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), the state’s top elections official, is writing a book that is both critical of former President Trump and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams.

The book, titled “Integrity Counts,” is currently available for preorder and is set for release on Nov. 2, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.

In the work, Raffensperger “speaks out against the former president’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and hopes to restore confidence and trust in our country’s elections,” according to the book’s description. 

Raffensperger caught the ire of former President Trump after further investigation into claims of election malfeasance in the state revealed that there was no substantial evidence of widespread voter fraud. President Biden became the first Democrat in more than 20 years to win the reliably red state. 

A hand recount of votes confirmed that Trump lost the election. 

However, Trump called Raffensperger and asked him to “find 11,780” votes, the exact number of votes he lost to Biden. 

The book ponders the question of whether every candidate who loses a major election will fundraise on false claims of voter fraud.

“To avoid that prospect, Americans must come to terms with the scope of the problem, but doing so won’t be comfortable for either party,” the description reads. “Either party because the 2020 crisis was not unprecedented in Georgia. By November 2020, Raffensperger had been challenging the claims of a ‘stolen election’ for nearly two years.” 

Raffensperger notes that after Abrams lost the race for governor of Georgia in 2018, she gave a speech in which she said, in part, that she would not concede the election.

At the time, Abrams said that there was voter suppression in the state of Georgia. 

“The similarities don’t end there, and when considered with some care, they paint a troubling picture of an all-too-bipartisan willingness to undermine the integrity of our democracy, and the public’s confidence in it, for the sake of personal and partisan gain,” the description reads.