President Donald Trump sounds like he’s freaking out. In yet another angry diatribe on Twitter about the outcome of the 2020 election, Trump insisted on Monday that Georgia state authorities “are very slow on Signature Verification, and won’t allow Fulton County to be examined,” which simply inaccurately represents the reality of the situation. Trump insinuated that the so-called “RINOs” — meaning Republicans in name only — who are in charge of Georgia, including Governor Brian Kemp and his second-in-command Geoff Duncan, are hiding something, which there’s simply no legitimate evidence for at all. The president’s comments amount to delusional paranoia — comprehensive signature verification covering every single mail-in ballot in the state of Georgia already took place, and election management machines routinely must undergo rigorous state and federal examination.
Trump angrily tweeted as follows:
‘Governor [Brian Kemp] and his puppet [Geoff Duncan], together with the Secretary of State of Georgia, are very slow on Signature Verification, and won’t allow Fulton County to be examined. What are these RINOS hiding? We will easily win Presidential State race. [Kelly Loeffler] and [David Perdue] will not be able to win on January 5th unless these people allow Signature Verification in presidential race. K & D need it for their race also, & Georgia spirit will rise to such a high that they will easily bring home a great victory. Move fast @BrianKempGA’
….@sendavidperdue will not be able to win on January 5th. unless these people allow Signature Verification in presidential race. K & D need it for their race also, & Georgia spirit will rise to such a high that they will easily bring home a great victory. Move fast @BrianKempGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2020
Again — signature verification covering every single mail-in ballot in the presidential race in Georgia already took place, no matter Trump’s notion that checking signatures will hand him a win in the state. Meaningful re-checks of actual ballots are physically impossible, because after initial verification, election workers separated ballots and their envelopes, which contain the signatures. Kemp has nevertheless expressed support for auditing the envelopes on their own — but Trump won’t even give him credit for that, apparently. Instead, Trump is sticking to the ludicrous conspiracy theory that Kemp, who is an ardent right-winger, is in cahoots with some kind of anti-Trump plot.
Trump’s apparent belief that he can still win Georgia — after three tallies of every single ballot in the state confirmed his loss and after the members of the electoral college for the state cast their own votes on behalf of Biden — seems rather staggeringly unhinged. When is Trump going to stop this anti-democratic fight against the election outcome? There’s never been any legitimacy to his claims of widespread fraud, and judges across the country, including a slew of his own appointees, have rejected the claims from his team.
A Loeffler and Perdue-backed lawsuit challenging signature verification procedures in Georgia has also repeatedly failed. In that case, plaintiffs wanted to change the regulation to require only one instead of two participating election workers to conclude that there’s an issue with a signature before setting a ballot aside. Voters get chances to fix these signature issues, but unfairly adding another layer to the process of casting their ballots could lead to some voters slipping through the cracks if they miss their chance to fix perceived signature issues. Democrats generally rely on mail-in voting more than Republicans, so this potential problem could disproportionately impact Democratic voters.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below:
