Georgia Caves, Will Conduct ‘Statewide Signature Match Review’ Of Absentee Ballots
Georgia just caved to Trump’s demand and will do a full state signature audit on absentee ballots after weeks of pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced.
He announced earlier he would do a signature audit in Cobb County only. He issued a statement announcing the reversal:
“Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced this week that the Office of the Secretary of State would be partnering with the University of Georgia on a statewide review of signature match in the Peach State.
The partnership will help instill confidence in Georgia’s absentee ballot system in future elections.
“We are confident that elections in Georgia are secure, reliable, and effective,” said Raffensperger. “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.”
Secretary Raffensperger has asked researchers at the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs to conduct research, including a randomized signature match study of election materials handled at the county level in the November 3 Presidential contest.
This work will also include research on processes used at the county level to perform signature-matching.
The work UGA will perform is a study of a sample of signed envelopes in each county from the presidential election. It is intended to be forward-looking, helping to inform and optimize election administration for future electoral contests in the State of Georgia.
Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 16 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record primary turnout in 2020, with over 1.1 million absentee by mail voters and over 1.2 million in-person voters utilizing Georgia’s new, secure, paper ballot voting system.
Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp earlier called for a signature audit of the state’s election on Fox News.
“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.
“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.”
JUST IN: Georgia Gov. Kemp is calling for a signature audit after CCTV footage of hidden ballots being secretly counted was leaked pic.twitter.com/aVsFx1AlZ4
— VINnews (@VINNews) December 4, 2020
The 90 second video of election workers at State Farm arena, purporting to show fraud was watched in its entirety (hours) by @GaSecofState investigators. Shows normal ballot processing. Here is the fact check on it. https://t.co/HVJsvDjDvi
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) December 4, 2020