Top Republicans Pressure GA Elections Chief; No Tampering Found

ATLANTA, GA — Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has rebutted accusations by prominent Republicans that there were errors in Georgia's Nov. 3 general election. He called former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins a “liar” and a “charlatan” Monday in response to accusations of irregularities during the election.

Raffensperger also told The Washington Post that Sen. Lindsey Graham, an ally of President Donald Trump, had called him Friday and pressured him to throw out legal votes.

According to Raffensperger, Graham had asked if biased poll workers might have accepted non-matching signatures on ballots in a way that could favor Biden.

Raffensperger said he was stunned. Graham later denied the characterization as “ridiculous.”

“If he feels threatened by that conversation, he’s got a problem,” Graham told The Washington Post. “I actually thought it was a good conversation.”

Raffensperger said he's being targeted by both in-state and out-of-state Republicans to find ways to count Georgia's vote for Trump.

After finishing third behind fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock in a special election to fill one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats, Collins was tapped by the Trump campaign to lead recount efforts.

One of Trump’s most vocal cheerleaders during his impeachment hearings, Collins said when chosen that he was “confident” that Republicans “will find evidence of improperly harvested ballots and other irregularities” that would prove Trump won Georgia “fairly.”

Since then, Loeffler and another Republican forced into a runoff for a U.S. Senate seat, David Perdue, have demanded that Raffensperger step down because his management of the election was an “embarrassment” that “failed to deliver honest and transparent elections.” Raffensperger, who is also a Republican, refused to resign, then ordered a recount of Georgia’s vote.

“I’m an engineer. We look at numbers. We look at hard data,” Raffensperger told The Washington Post. “I can’t help that a failed candidate like Collins is running around lying to everyone. He’s a liar.”

President-elect Joe Biden, whose victory had already been called by major news outlets before the state’s count was complete, eventually finished about 14,000 votes ahead of Trump in Georgia.

The subsequent recount has shown no significant voting irregularities except for one in Floyd County, where about 2,500 early-voting ballots initially went uncounted because of a malfunctioning scanner. About 1,600 of those ballots went for Trump, who had already won the Republican-leaning county by a wide margin.

Raffensperger expressed frustration to The Washington Post over unfounded claims of voter fraud coming from the Trump camp. He also said he and his wife had received death threats over the vote, including a text that read: “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”

On Sunday, Raffensperger pushed back on accusations of irregularities with posts on social media.