Georgia is conducting a statewide review of signatures on absentee ballots after weeks of pressure from President Trump and his campaign.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the statewide review in a press release on Thursday. The announcement comes after his office approved an initial signature review in one county, Cobb, on Monday.
“We are confident that elections in Georgia are secure, reliable, and effective,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “Despite endless lawsuits and wild allegations from Washington, D.C. pundits, we have seen no actual evidence of widespread voter fraud, though we are investigating all credible reports. Nonetheless, we look forward to working with the University of Georgia on this signature match review to further instill confidence in Georgia’s voting systems.”
Raffensperger announced on Monday that the state would be reviewing signatures in Cobb County due to a complaint specific to the county. While the complaint referred to Cobb County election officials’ conduct during the primary election, the review will cover ballots sent in the primary and in the general election.
As The Daily Wire previously reported:
President Trump has consistently called for a signature audit of Georgia’s votes sent by mail, hammering the state’s Republican governor and secretary of state. The state has already conducted two statewide recounts, finding a number of mistakes totaling thousands of votes, but not enough to flip the state from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to Trump, who trails by about 12,000 votes.
On Dec. 3, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reasserted his calls for a signature audit, though the decision is ultimately left up to the secretary of state.
“You know, I’ve called early on for a signature audit, obviously the secretary of state, per the laws and the Constitution would have to order that; he has not done that,” Kemp said in an interview on Fox News. “I think it should be done. I think, especially with what we saw today, it raises more questions. There needs to be transparency on that. I would again call for that, and I think in the next 24 hours hopefully we’ll see a lot more from the hearings that the legislature had today and we’ll be able to look and see what the next steps are.”
In November, the Trump campaign called for a second recount in Georgia but stipulated that without signature matching, the recount “would be a sham.”
“President Trump and his campaign continue to insist on an honest recount in Georgia, which has to include signature matching and other vital safeguards. Without signature matching, this recount would be a sham and again allow for illegal votes to be counted,” the campaign said. “If there is no signature matching, this would be as phony as the initial vote count and recount. Let’s stop giving the People false results. There must be a time when we stop counting illegal ballots. Hopefully it is coming soon.”
(Daily Wire).