Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp urged Georgia Secretary of
State Brad Raffensperger to conduct a signature audit of the
state’s 2020 election results Thursday, calling some of the
testimony to come out during that day’s state Senate Oversight
Committee hearing “concerning.”
While it is
unclear to what degree a signature audit can still be conducted
in the state since mail-in ballots are separated from their signed
envelopes before they are counted, the call matches what President
Donald Trump has been asking for since counting was completed
earlier this month showing Democratic nominee Joe Biden edging the
incumbent in the state by just under 13,000 votes.
“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 told Fox News’
Laura Ingraham. “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.”
Later in the interview, after Ingraham played video
from the hearing showing Democratic poll workers in Fulton County
allegedly pulling cases of ballots from under a table to count them
while Republican poll watchers were no
longer present, Kemp said, “Certainly what [we saw] today was
concerning.”
“We need to get answers from the secretary of state about
exactly what happened,” he added. “Obviously, they should be
investigating this, I imagine they already are.”
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp calls for a signature audit
of the state’s election results. https://t.co/af2QEvmc8g— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@(((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH
Radio)1607056673.0
Kemp, a Trump supporter, has been under fire from the president
this week. On Monday, Trump called the governor out on Twitter,
asking,
“Why won’t Governor [Kemp], the hapless Governor of Georgia, use
his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his
obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on
envelopes[?]”
“It will be a ‘goldmine’ of fraud, and we will easily WIN the
state,” the president added.
“Also, quickly check the number of envelopes versus the number of
ballots. You may just find that there are many more ballots than
there are envelopes. So simple, and so easy to do. Georgia
Republicans are angry, all Republicans are angry. Get it done!”
After the tweet, Kemp’s office quickly
responded by clarifying that state law prohibits him from
interfering in elections because “the Secretary of State, who is an
elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that
cannot be overridden by executive order.”
During the Thursday interview, Ingraham also pressed Kemp on
what he may be able to do as governor to ensure election fraud does
not occur during next month’s Senate runoff elections between
Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler and their
Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Kemp said he was considering calling the state legislature back
to session or facilitating changes through the court system, but
did not commit to any action.
