Fact Check: Brad Raffensperger's Brother Is Not A Chinese Tech Executive Named Ron

Caption

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says Georgians should expect to wait in line on Election Day amidst record turnout.

Credit: Stephen Fowler | GPB News

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron who works for a Chinese tech firm, regardless of what the president of the United States says.

In a late-night tweet, President Donald Trump attacked Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger for failing to overturn election results in his favor and claimed that "Brad R's brother works for China." Except, that's not true.

On Dec. 23, GPB News reported on the "Battleground" blog and on social media that Brad and Ron were not related, that Raffensperger had two sisters and no brother in debunking the claims made by the Gateway Pundit and other right-wing media outlets seeking to allege nefarious actions that somehow altered election results.

Here's what we know now: The secretary of state's office said at the time that Raffensperger did not have a brother named Ron and had two sisters. Raffensperger also has another sister and a brother — also not named Ron — who are private civilians, and the official who fielded our query about the nonsensical claims last week said the secretary of state only discussed having two sisters in conversations with staff about his private life — especially given the death threats and harassment he and his family members have faced in recent weeks and months. 

True, factual, contextual information is important now more than ever, when the President of the United States is leading a movement of misinformation. So GPB News is updating the blog and has published this fact check to ensure accurate information is reported and available.

GPB News has confirmed via public documents and records that Raffensperger does have four siblings, including a brother, but none of them are named Ron, none work for Chinese technology companies nor have any ties to voting machine vendors used by Georgia to conduct its elections or to count five million votes three separate times to confirm that Joe Biden won the state's electoral votes.