Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp and secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, on Monday rejected Trump’s calls to overturn the state’s results over a week after they cleared Biden as the victor. The statements by the two officials publicly rebuff Trump’s claims who is calling on his party fellows to support him as he can influence January’s runoff election in which two Trump allied GOP senators are expecting to retain their seats.
For weeks, Trump who exerts immense influence in GOP, has made a flurry of unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and has so far failed to prove any of them. Biden secured the victory in Georgia with over 12,000 votes and both Kemp and Raffensperger have assured they will respect the law.
“Georgia law prohibits the Governor from interfering in elections. The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order,” Cody Hall, the communications director for Kemp, said in a statement. “As the Governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps — including a sample audit of signatures — to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised.”
Election officials believe its physically impossible to conduct an “audit of signatures” from postal ballots. Both Kemp and Trump have previously requested for an “audit of signatures” from mail-in ballots but election officials have repeatedly maintained that it is literally impossible at this stage in the process. The officials already verified the signatures twice before permanently removing the envelopes of the ballots.
Raffensperger, on Monday, asserted during a press conference that “the truth matters” and took exception from those spreading disinformation in Republican camp while influencing the President and allies negatively.
“There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation, and frankly, they are misleading the President as well, apparently,” he said.
He also acknowledged the post-election audit and the truth of ongoing recount, proving the election was fair.
“Once this recount is complete, everyone in Georgia will be able to have even more confidence in the results of our elections,” he said, adding that the recount will finish by Wednesday night.
