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The statements by the two officials amount to an unusual public rejection of Trump, who continues to wield immense influence in the party and whose shadow hangs over the January runoff election, in which two GOP senators allied with Trump hope to keep their seat.
“Georgian law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional official, exercises oversight over elections which cannot be annulled by decree,” said Cody Hall, director of communications from Kemp, in a press release. “As the Governor has repeatedly said, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps – including sample signature checks – to restore confidence and resolve the serious issues that were raised. “
Election officials, however, said it was physically impossible to do a “signature check” from the mail ballots. Trump and Kemp have previously demanded a “signature audit” of the mail-in ballots, but election officials have repeatedly said this is literally impossible at this point in the process. Election officials have already verified voters’ signatures twice, and then the ballots have been permanently separated from the envelopes.
Also on Monday, Raffensperger insisted at a press conference that “truth matters” and pushed back the “massive” tap of election disinformation being broadcast by Trump and his Republican allies.
“There are those who exploit the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic statements, half-truths, disinformation and, frankly, they are also deceiving the president,” he said.
He also said a post-election audit, as well as the ongoing recount, proved the election was fair.
“Once this recount is completed, everyone in Georgia will be able to have even more confidence in the results of our elections,” he said, adding that the recount is about to end before Wednesday night’s deadline.
The secretary of state said his office would continue to investigate any credible allegations of illegal voting and violations of state election law. According to Raffensperger, there are currently more than 250 open cases of electoral irregularities which are still under investigation as of 2020. Almost 5 million votes were cast statewide.
The president has repeatedly criticized the two men. He called Kemp “unhappy” Monday and urged the governor to use his emergency powers to “overthrow” Raffensperger, a day after he said on Fox News he was “ashamed” to have approved the governor. The president also called Raffensperger an “enemy of the people” last week.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
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