ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spent Sunday night refuting claims made by President Trump and Rep. Doug Collins about the state’s voting system, absentee ballot signature verification, and recount observation rules, further intensifying the Republican in-fighting in the state.
“Failed candidate Doug Collins is a liar — but what’s new?” Raffensperger wrote in a scathing Facebook post that called out Collins over complaints about signature matches.
Collins, who lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat earlier this month, was tapped by the Trump administration to lead its Georgia recount effort.
“We strengthened signature match. We helped train election officials on GBI signature match — which is confirmed twice before a ballot is ever cast,” Raffensperger’s post read.
“Our office has received multiple requests to match ballots back to voters — exposing how a Georgia voter has voted,” Raffensperger said. “We stand ready to prevent any and all attempts from any party to intimidate voters. Georgia voters have a right to vote in secret without intimidation from any political candidate or party.”
Raffensperger also wrote, “Truth matters. Integrity matters.”
Raffensperger has been under attack by Trump and other high-profile Republicans who have repeatedly taken shots at Georgia’s ability to provide fair and accurate vote tallies.
The Republican became the target of his own party after he said that there had been no widespread voter fraud in Georgia’s presidential election. The state’s two incumbent GOP senators, who are in twin high-stakes runoffs in January that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, called for Raffensperger’s resignation and condemned the presidential election as an “embarrassment.”
On Wednesday, Raffensperger authorized a hand recount of Georgia’s election — a move applauded by Trump and the state GOP at the time.
Since then, the president has soured on the process, calling the state’s audit meaningless and has made unproven claims about ballot signature verification. Trump has said more than once that Georgia’s election officials are unable to verify signatures on absentee ballot envelopes because of a legal settlement known as a consent decree.
“The Consent Decree signed by the Georgia Secretary of State, with the approval of Governor @BrianKempGA, at the urging of @staceyabrams, makes it impossible to check & match signatures on ballots and envelopes, etc. They knew they were going to cheat. Must expose real signatures!” he tweeted Saturday.
On Monday, he tweeted, “The fake recount going on in Georgia means nothing because they are not allowing signatures to be looked at and verified. Break the unconstitutional Consent Decree!” Twitter tagged the tweet with a warning that Trump’s “claim about election fraud is disputed.”
There is nothing in the consent decree that prevents Georgia election clerks from scrutinizing signatures. The legal settlement signed on March 6 addresses accusations about a lack of statewide standards for judging signatures on absentee ballot envelopes.
Raffensperger said that not only is it possible to match signatures but that the state required it.
When a voter requests an absentee ballot on a paper application, they must sign it. Election officials compare that signature to the one in voter registration files before a ballot is sent to the voter. When those ballots are returned, the required signature on the outer envelope is compared to the signature in the voter registration system, the Associated Press reported.
Raffensperger’s late-night Facebook posts also took on Trump’s attacks about election monitors.
Trump as well as the state Republican Party have claimed that their election monitors have not been allowed to watch the recount process up-close.
Raffensperger pushed back on the claim and noted that anyone can watch the process from observation areas and that political parties, not his office, are responsible for recruiting and credentialing monitors.
Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer told the Washington Examiner that the Republican Party has been “denied a meaningful opportunity to observe the counting.” “We have been limited to one credentialed monitor for each ten counting tables, which we believe is inadequate.”
On Sunday, Fulton County and DeKalb County finished their recounting process. In Fulton, 170 audit teams worked through the weekend to count more than 528,000 votes at the Georgia World Congress Center. Elections officials said extra volunteers helped the county meet Wednesday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline.
