President Donald Trump’s legal team on Saturday said they had filed a petition for a recount in Georgia, one that would match signatures on absentee ballot envelopes, which the state did not do in the previous effort.
The team made the announcement in a statement.
Today, the Trump campaign filed a petition for recount in Georgia. We are focused on ensuring that every aspect of Georgia State Law and the U.S. Constitution are followed so that every legal vote is counted. President Trump and his campaign continue to insist on an honest recount in Georgia, which has to include signature matching and other vital safeguards. Without signature matching, this recount would be a sham and again allow for illegal votes to be counted. 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. There must be a time when we stop counting illegal ballots. Hopefully it is coming soon.
Trump tweeted, “Almost ZERO ballots rejected in Georgia this election. In years past, close to 4%. Not possible. Must have signature check on envelopes now. Very easy to do. Dems fighting because they got caught. Far more votes than needed for flip. Republicans must get tough! @BrianKempGA“.
Almost ZERO ballots rejected in Georgia this election. In years past, close to 4%. Not possible. Must have signature check on envelopes now. Very easy to do. Dems fighting because they got caught. Far more votes than needed for flip. Republicans must get tough! @BrianKempGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2020
Meanwhile, the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration is defending itself after videos surfaced of it shredding election documents during Georgia’s controversial recount, The Georgia Star News reported Sunday. Trump attorney Lin Wood questioned if absentee ballot envelopes were being shredded.
The envelopes are crucial in verifying mail-in ballots.
Fredericks said, “The Trump campaign has called for a real audit of the Georgia election results, not just a recount of potentially illegally cast mail-in ballots. The audit must include a verifiable signature match of the envelopes that the absentee ballots were mailed or delivered in. The ballots have already been separated from the envelopes, which contain the signatures and name and address. So the ballots themselves can’t be checked. However, if an audit of envelopes finds that there is more than a .09 inaccuracy rate, all of the mail-in ballots are thrown into question.
“Georgia Gov. Kemp (R) last night called on SOS Brad Raffensperger (R) to do a sample audit of envelopes in key precincts where Biden’s mail in vote was extraordinarily high and one-sided,” Fredericks said.
Making matters worse, the state of Georgia arbitrarily changed state law on signature verification of absentee ballots via a March 2020 judicial consent decree with Georgia Democrats — without ever going to the state legislature, Robert Romano, vice president of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government, said. It changed the statutory requirement that the signature must match the signature on the voter registration card to simply matching the signature on the absentee ballot application.
– – –
Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
John Fredericks is the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Virginia Star.
He is also a Trump 2020 delegate and the chairman of the Trump Virginia Delegation.
