On the same day that Georgians headed to the polls for the first day of early voting for the January 5th runoff, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a limited signature match audit in Cobb County for the November 3 General Election. But many were left wondering why Raffensperger decided to focus only on Cobb County.
“I am thrilled that he has agreed to do this in Cobb County, but my question is why not do it in all counties where it really matters? Why not Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties,” said Ray Smith III, lead counsel for the Trump Campaign who recently filed suit in Fulton County Superior Court contesting the results of the November 3 election. The lawsuit claims that there are tens of thousands of illegal votes in the Georgia election and want the courts to let the state legislature appoint the electors for Georgia.
Apparently, the announcement wasn’t enough for U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler either — who last week filed a federal lawsuit along with Sen. David Perdue that seeks additional procedures to check the work of election officials who verify voter signatures for absentee ballots.
A spokesperson for the Loeffler campaign was quoted as saying, “That’s a start. Only 158 counties left to go.
According to Raffensperger, the Secretary of State’s Office will partner with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to conduct the Cobb County audit.
“I am glad Secretary Raffensperger has finally taken this necessary step to begin restoring confidence in our state’s election processes,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. “I have called for a signature audit repeatedly since the November 3rd election. As Georgians head back to the polls for the January 5th runoffs, it is absolutely vital for every vote cast to be legal and for only legal votes to be counted.”
The audit will consist of reviewing a statistically significant subset of the signed absentee ballot envelopes and comparing those signatures to the ones on file in Georgia’s voter registration system. Raffensperger said the outcome of the race in Georgia will not change, however, “conducting this audit follows in the footsteps of the audit-triggered hand recount we conducted in November to provide further confidence in the accuracy, security, and reliability of the vote in Georgia.”
“Conducting this audit does not in any way suggest that Cobb County was not properly following election procedures or properly conducting signature matching,” said Chris Harvey, Director of Elections for the Secretary of State’s office, who was formerly the Chief Investigator for the office. “We chose Cobb County for this audit because they are well known to have one the best election offices in the state, and starting in Cobb will help as we embark on a statewide signature audit. Just like Cobb County volunteered to be a pilot county for our new voting system, we thank everyone at the Cobb County elections office for their cooperation with this process especially while voting is underway for the runoff.”
The audit of Cobb County’s signature match system is expected to take two weeks.
Raffensperger also announced a planned statewide signature match audit, adding that the Secretary of State will partner with an accredited university to conduct a third-party signature match statewide audit study.
