On Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) expressed support for including a signature re-check in the latest Georgia recount — despite the fact that meaningfully re-checking the signatures that arrived with mail-in ballots is physically impossible due to the fact that ballots and the envelopes in which they arrived (which contain the signatures) were separated after the initial round of signature checking. Graham issued his own statement of support for signature re-checking in response to a post about support for signature re-checks from Georgia’s two U.S. Senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom are Republicans.
Graham was supposedly calling the Georgia secretary of state to get information about signature matching, but now he’s acting like he doesn't know that this demand is impossible. https://t.co/72f251hBXR
— Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick) November 23, 2020
What is going on among Senate Republicans? Are they all that colossally ignorant of the actual electoral processes that have been unfolding in the United States? Are they merely trying to issue statements that pander to their base? Neither option is particularly reassuring, to say the least. Graham issued the following statement:
‘Completely agree with [David Perdue] and [Kelly Loeffler’s] call for signature verification to be part of new Georgia recount requested by President [Donald Trump]. Georgia should also change law requiring bipartisan signature verification of mail-in ballots for future elections. The current system only requires single individual to verify signatures.’
Again — meaningfully re-checking signatures during the Georgia recount is impossible because of the fact that mail-in ballots and the envelopes in which they arrived were separated after the initial round of signature-checking. This concept is not complicated. Why are Senate Republicans struggling so desperately to hang onto basic facts?
Georgia should also change law requiring bipartisan signature verification of mail-in ballots for future elections. The current system only requires single individual to verify signatures.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 23, 2020
This occasion is not the first time that Graham has, in some way, spoken out about the election in Georgia. Recently, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, revealed that Graham had called him to ask about the prospects of throwing out legally cast ballots. According to The Washington Post‘s summary, Graham “asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures.” Raffensperger said that “he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots,” the Post’s summary adds. Graham, who disputes Raffensperger’s characterization of events, has faced a request for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation over this appalling debacle.
Graham has expressed support for Trump’s broad challenges to the election results, but neither the president nor his legal team have come anywhere remotely close to overturning enough of the election results to hand Trump a victory.
Check out Twitter’s response to Graham below:
