Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger appeared to have reached a breaking point when it comes to President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the Peach State’s election processes were plagued by widespread fraud. Raffensperger fired back at the president with a series of individually tailored responses fact-checking the president’s false claims across several social media platforms.
Raffensperger, a Republican, took aim at Trump just days after it was reported that the president bullied the state’s two embattled GOP senators to release a joint statement describing Georgia’s election management as “embarrassing.” They senators called for the Raffensperger to step down.
The secretary began by addressing Trump’s statements about signature matching on absentee ballots.
“The Consent Decree signed by the Georgia Secretary of State, with the approval of Governor Brian Kemp, at the urging of Stacey Abrams, makes it impossible to check & match signatures on ballots and envelopes, etc.,” Trump wrote. “They knew they were going to cheat. Must expose real signatures!”
Linking to an Associated Press article headlined, “AP FACT CHECK: Trump wrong on Georgia voter signature checks,” Raffensperger pointed out that not only does Georgia require absentee ballot matching, the state also strengthened those procedures ahead of the 2020 election.
Trump also cast aspersions Saturday on the statewide hand recount taking place across Georgia, returning to his erroneous assertion about signature verification.
“The hand recount taking place in Georgia is a waste of time. They are not showing the matching signatures. Call off the recount until they allow the MATCH. Don’t let the Radical Left Dems STEAL THE ELECTION!” he wrote. “They wouldn’t let our Poll Watchers and Observers into the Counting Rooms. We win on that alone!”
But, as Raffensperger pointed out, “matching” ballots with individual voters would eliminate the confidentiality by revealing the candidate for whom each citizen voted and could be construed as voter intimidation.
“Our office has received multiple requests to match ballots back to voters— exposing how a Georgia voter has voted,” the secretary wrote. “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 additionally highlighted that, despite the Trump campaign’s claims, Dominion voting systems were not manufactured in Venezuela. Dominion is the company that provides hardware and software for the voting machines used in Georgia.
″**Dominion voting system** American owned. America. ’Merica,” Raffensperger’s wrote, adding, “Not Venezuela. America.” Raffensperger’s post on the subject read.
Journalist Stephen Fowler of NPR and PBS pointed out other instances of Raffensperger taking aim at Trump’s attempts to spread disinformation about the election results.
[image via CBS News screengrab]
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