Following weeks of calls by President Trump for a signature audit of ballots in Georgia, it appears the secretary of state is finally ready to take a look. A signature audit of votes in Cobb County, Ga., may expand statewide according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“I feel we need to take steps to restore confidence in our elections,” Raffensperger said during a press conference. “Starting immediately, we are pulling all of our resources together with GBI to conduct a signature match audit in Cobb County.”
The signature audit is expected to take about two weeks. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the secretary of state’s office will review a statistically significant number of absentee ballot envelopes from both the primary and general elections in Cobb County. The signatures on envelopes will be compared to signatures from when the voters registered.
The signature audit will show whether ballot signatures did match voter signatures kept on file but there is no way to match those signatures to a ballot once the envelopes are opened. The right to cast a secret ballot is guaranteed by the Georgia state constitution.
President Trump has pressed for signature audits for weeks, calling the Georgia recounts “a sham” without signature matching. A statement released by the Trump legal team in November said recounts are pointless without a signature match, saying “If there is no signature matching, this would be as phony as the initial vote count and recount. Let’s stop giving the people false results.”
According to a Facebook post by Raffensperger following the 2020 general election, out of 1,322,529 absentee ballots cast, only 2,011 absentee ballots were rejected. Giving the state a rejection rate of 0.15%.
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