Georgia Governor: ‘Signature Audit’ Results of Election Are Almost Ready

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp listens to a question from the press during a tour of a temporary hospital at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga., on April 16, 2020. Ron Harris/AP Photo

Gov. Brian Kemp announced the results of the state’s signature verification audit should be released Wednesday or Thursday—coming after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made the announcement.

“The law in Georgia is that the secretary of state has the constitutional authority,” Kemp told Fox News on Wednesday. “He finally ordered the signature audit. I’m glad he did. I offered to allow the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is under my purview, to assist in that.”

Kemp was referring to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordering the signature audit, adding he is “very confident” in the process. The audit will include signatures for mail-in ballots for Georgia’s 159 counties.

Since the Nov. 3 election, President Donald Trump and other Republicans like Graham, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have pushed for Georgia to conduct a signature audit.

According to Kemp, the University of Georgia involved itself in the auditing process in each county.

“Hopefully we will know today or perhaps in the morning what the results of that are, and that should give great confidence,” said Kemp on the show. “No one has worked harder down here in Georgia to support this president’s reelection than myself,” said Kemp. “I continue to support his and any candidate’s legal actions post-election, which is what the law allows for.”

Kemp was referring to the frequent criticism lodged at him by Trump and other Republicans over the past month or so. They have said Kemp hasn’t done enough while calling on the Republican governor to call a special legislative session so the state House and Senate can vote to affirm their own electors; Kemp has refused to do so.

On Tuesday evening, Graham tweeted that he was briefed about Georgia’s “signature verification system.”

“From what I’ve been told, sounds like they now have a credible process in place to do a signature audit,” he wrote, without elaborating. “Look forward to hearing the results!”

A lawyer for Trump on Dec. 1 wrote to Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger for the “immediate audit” of tens of thousands of ballots.

“The Trump Campaign estimates that between 38,250 and 45,626 illegal votes from the absentee ballots alone were cast in the state of Georgia—far beyond the Biden-Harris ticket’s current margin of 12,670 votes,” according to a news release from Trump’s team at the time.

Raffensberger has frequently denied claims of irregularities and fraud lodged by the Trump team.

“There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation, and frankly, they are misleading the President as well, apparently,” Raffensberger said several weeks ago, adding that a post-election audit—without signature verification—showed a fair election.