Corporations that oppose Georgia’s new voting law are being duped by a "false narrative," according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

On Wednesday, hundreds of major American firms — including Google and Amazon — signed an open letter stating "that there is overwhelming support in corporate America for the principle of voting rights" and decrying "any discriminatory legislation." While the signatories said "we are not being prescriptive" regarding a specific bill, the open letter came after Georgia enacted an omnibus voting reform bill, drawing ire from national Democrats. Notably, the heads of Georgia-based corporations Delta and Coca-Cola did not sign on.

In an interview with National Review, Raffensperger, himself a small-business owner, said "no one’s questioning" a corporation's right to free speech, and that "it’s really a good thing" when CEOs are "engaged in their communities."

But he also warned that, in a divisive era, the jump to incorrect conclusions "isolates" businesses from large swaths of the communities they serve. Following the bill's passage, Major League Baseball decided to pull its All-Star Game out of Atlanta, reportedly costing the area $100 million in expected tourism revenue.

"Take a look at America — we have a very polarized nation right now. And when these elections happen, going back to the George Bush days, it’s really a 50–50 election with a half-percent either way," he said. "And so you really have to think carefully before you get drawn into these political controversies. I believe that if you focused on serving your customers, your employees, your shareholders, I think that is really the best way that you really are going to probably move forward."

Raffensperger said the recent criticism of Georgia has been a diversion tactic, designed to steer the conversation away from H.R. 1, a sweeping election and voter-reform bill which passed the House last month in a party-line vote.

"We need to continue to work together on election issues, instead of being played by people like Stacey Abrams and the national Democrats, that are really trying to put Georgia in the focus, so you’re not focused on HR1S1, which is the federal takeover of our election process," he explained. "They want same-day registration for the entire nation. How do you do that with security? Let’s ask that question."

A recent report from the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) warned that, post-November, "some legislators are supporting proposals to roll back many of the election reforms that led the 2020 election to be a success – in particular, early and mail voting." But it also noted that "there has been misinformation about which states are offering the easiest access to the ballot for eligible voters."

Last month, fact-checkers at the Washington Post gave their worst rating of "Four Pinocchios" to President Joe Biden for some of his claims about how the new bill "ends voting hours early."

CEIR color-coded all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the issue of whether they offered "mail voting to all voters or required a specific excuse, and whether the state made in-person early voting available to all voters" for the upcoming 2022 midterms. With the passage of SB 202, Georgia was one of 36 jurisdictions that offered both and earned a "green" ranking — and putting it ahead of blue states such as New York and Delaware.

"What it shows is that Georgia’s in the mainstream of election processes and election laws throughout the country," Raffensperger said. "We compare very favorably to other states. What it also really shows —perhaps national Democrats don’t want to talk about this, but — the state of New York, Governor Cuomo he’s got some work to do. And perhaps you should be looking at President Biden’s home state of Delaware, because that needs some work done also."

Raffensperger highlighted SB 202's increase to 17 mandatory early voting days, the slashing of the federal runoff period from eight to four weeks — "after this last cycle we had, the entire nation will be grateful, but particularly Georgians will be grateful," he joked — and a shift to using driver’s license numbers to verify absentee ballots, rather than the "subjective" signature match.

"I believe that what came out of the will of the General Assembly, what was signed into law, is a measured piece of legislation, looking at what is the appropriate guardrail of accessibility and what is the appropriate guardrail of security," he said. "I believe it’s struck, on balance, the appropriate medium area, because there is that constant tension."

Democrats have countered the Republican defense of the bill by arguing that, on balance, the bill is one of many being implemented by red-state legislatures to "make it more difficult to vote."

"Georgia was just one of the first states to act on a concerted effort to use easily disprovable conspiracy theories to fuel their attempts to make it even harder for eligible Americans to vote," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this month.

But Raffensperger hopes that his track record — he drew praise from Democrats for resisting President Trump's claims about a "stolen" election — can help set the record straight.

"I think the one thing that I’ve shown is that when I speak, you’re going to hear facts," he said. "I think that’s what we’re getting — facts not opinions. Lot of people have opinions, but if you can’t base that by facts, then it’s really a false narrative. People have seen that I’ll stand up and make those hard decisions, I’ll make those hard calls that will make sure that we’re standing on facts."