On Twitter this Monday morning, President Donald Trump suggested that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, an avowed Republican, has something to hide because of his supposed refusal to do signature verification for mail-in ballots in the state. Completing a signature verification process would, Trump added, hand him an “easy win” in Georgia — but there are several layers of outright falsehood in his statement.
Trump tweeted the following message:
‘The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?’
The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2020
For starters, an initial round of comprehensive signature verification for every single mail-in ballot in Georgia already took place. A second re-verification of actual ballots is impossible, because election workers separated ballots and envelopes (with the signatures) after initial verification, which helps protect the secrecy of individual voters’ choices. Nevertheless, Kemp has openly supported an audit of the signatures that are on envelopes in the state — but Kemp doesn’t have the power to order such an audit, no matter his support. Following a Trump-requested recount, Georgia has now completed three comprehensive ballot tabulation processes covering every ballot in the state — and every time, Trump has come up short. No legitimate evidence has emerged of the kind of outcome-altering fraud that Trump has claimed. President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia.
Recently, Trump personally spoke with Kemp, urging the governor to summon a special session of the state legislature, where Georgia legislators would select members of the electoral college for the state who support Trump, regardless of the popular vote outcome in the state. Besides the brazenly authoritarian mindset underlying this proposal, lawyers for the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, have concluded that there’s no legal mechanism for Georgia state legislators to select electoral college members at all. Trump’s insinuation otherwise is an authoritarian fever dream. Local election officials around the country, the Department of Homeland Security, and even Attorney General Bill Barr have reported that there’s no evidence of election outcome-altering fraud — but Trump is keeping up his charade.
Check out Twitter’s response below:
