In an interview with the Washington Post, GOP Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he is coming under pressure from Republicans, including GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots. The Post writes:
Raffensperger expressed exasperation with a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes not to be counted.
The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that both he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read, “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”
Georgia is in the middle of a hand recount of some 5 million ballots. Joe Biden has a 14-thousand vote lead in the state. Every instance of fraud will be investigated, according to Raffensperger, who said there is no evidence that fraud occurred on a large enough scale to alter the outcome. Raffensperger said he spoke to Graham on Friday.
In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state’s signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.
Raffspenger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia.
