On Wednesday, outgoing President Donald Trump accused Georgia officials of “slow walking” the signature verification process for mail-in ballots in the state, which grossly misrepresents the reality of the situation. In truth, a comprehensive signature verification process covering every single mail-in ballot in the state has already been completed, and a meaningful re-check of actual ballots is impossible, because election workers separate envelopes (with the signatures) and ballots after the initial round of verification, which protects the secrecy of voters’ choices. Georgia authorities have been conducting an audit of the signatures on about 15,000 mail-in ballot envelopes in Cobb County.
Trump petulantly tweeted as follows:
‘They are slow walking the signature verification in Georgia. They don’t want results to get out prior to January 6th. They know what they are trying so hard to hide. Terrible people! @BrianKempGA’
They are slow walking the signature verification in Georgia. They don’t want results to get out prior to January 6th. They know what they are trying so hard to hide. Terrible people! @BrianKempGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2020
There is no credible evidence that officials involved in the signature audit in Georgia have been “slow walking” the process in any respect. If Trump is really so concerned about the security of the process, then wouldn’t he want authorities to complete the audit effectively instead of hurriedly? On Tuesday, the day before Trump’s tweet about the signature audit in Cobb County — which is featuring the re-verification of about 10 percent of the signatures from the November presidential election as a sort of quality control mechanism — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made a surprise visit to the audit site in Marietta. According to Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, Meadows “just wanted to know the process,” although there’s an obvious power imbalance between the White House and local Georgia officials, lending the visit an air of political pressure.
Trump and his allies have challenged the election outcome in Georgia, but they’ve failed to prove their allegations of systematic fraud in that state or anywhere else in the country. Judges across the country, including liberals, conservatives, and even some of Trump’s own appointees, have roundly rejected the Trump campaign’s arguments. Every single state has formally certified its results, all members of the electoral college have cast their votes, Congress is on track to certify the electoral college outcome in early January — and Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated as the next president on January 20.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below:
