Georgia elections chief fires back at Trump over claims about recount process

Georgia’s Republican secretary of state is pushing back on several false claims by President Trump about the state’s recount process and election integrity.

In a series of Facebook posts, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) first addressed the president’s claims that election officials were not allowing Trump campaign observers into counting rooms.

“The state of Georgia placed the responsibility of recruitment of monitors solely on both parties. Don’t have credentials? Call your state party and demand monitor credentials,” Raffensperger wrote on Facebook. “Find them horribly disorganized? Show up to their office and demand credentials.

In follow-up posts, Raffensperger clarified that the Dominion voting system, the subject of numerous conspiracy theories advanced by the president, is American-owned rather than Venezuelan and that the practice of ballot harvesting is illegal in Georgia.

He also addressed a lawsuit by attorney Lin Wood and claims by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) about matching signatures on absentee ballots.

“Let’s address this disinformation about signature match. We strengthened signature match. We helped train election officials on GBI signature match—which is confirmed twice before a ballot is ever cast. Failed candidate Doug Collins is a liar— but what’s new?” he wrote.

The president and Republican allies in Georgia have repeatedly attacked Raffensperger over the election in the state, where President-elect Joe Biden is the projected winner. Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), both of whom will defend their seats in Jan. 5 runoffs, called for his resignation for “failing to deliver an honest election.”

Trump’s tweets about voting and tabulating in Georgia have repeatedly been flagged by the social media platform as disputed or potentially containing misinformation. There is no substantial evidence of large-scale voter fraud in the 2020 elections, which federal and state officials have called the most secure in the nation’s history.