Trump campaign backs Georgia governor's request for absentee-ballot signature audit

Just two days after the hand recount of Georgia's general election ballots was completed, Gov. Brian Kemp asked his Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to perform a sample audit to check signatures.

The Trump campaign has also jumped in and asked for a recount in light of Kemp's request.

The hand recount of 5 million votes took Raffensperger's office a full week to complete, finishing up on Wednesday night. The signatures were required to be looked over by election officials prior to their being scanned in voting machines.

What Kemp is looking for, however, is that election workers should review the signatures submitted with the absentee-ballot request form with the signatures submitted on those completed ballots, according to the Washington Examiner.

In Georgia, when a person requests an absentee-ballot, they sign the request form. Election workers then compare that signature to the one on file. For online absentee-ballot requests, Georgia voters must certify their identity with their driver's license number. When the ballots are returned, they are signed under oath.

Kemp wants to implement voter-ID laws, meaning that a voter would have to shot a photo-ID to be submitted along with an absentee ballot. Kemp also said that Georgians contacted him over their own fears surrounding signatures. For his part, Raffensperger said that there was virtually no difference between the ballot-rejection rate due to signature discrepancies in 2018 as in 2020.

An additional problem with the recount, however, is that 5,000 missing votes were uncovered during the hand count. Both of Georgia's Senate seats have yet to be decided, and there will be a run-off election on Jan. 5, so it's essential that Georgia get this right as the fate of the US Senate hangs in the balance.

"In the runoff election, we cannot have lost memory cards or stacks of uncounted ballots," Kemp said. "We must have full transparency in all monitoring and counting. Every legal vote must be counted, and the security of the ballot box must be protected."

Two of those senatorial candidates have also backed Kemp's call for a signature audit. Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue, who are both seeking to retain their seats, have asked for signature matching in a new recount.

There are 5 million votes to count in Georgia. Raffensberger's audit resulted in a certification of the state for Biden on Friday.