Gov. Kemp To Trump: GA State Law Prohibits Election Interference

GEORGIA — Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's office has responded to President Donald Trump's request to override the Secretary of State and invalidate the state's presidential election results.

In a tweet posted on Monday, Trump said, "Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a 'goldmine' of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state...."

Georgia certified President-elect Joe Biden's victory last week after an audit ordered by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. On the strength of gains in the state's metro areas, Biden won by 12,670 votes, according to The Washington Post.

Trump went on to tweet, "Also, quickly check the number of envelopes versus the number of ballots. You may just find that there are many more ballots than there are envelopes. So simple, and so easy to do. Georgia Republicans are angry, all Republicans are angry. Get it done!"

Now, Kemp's office has responded to the president indicating that, "Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order," said Kemp spokesman Cody Hall to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"As the governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps - including a sample audit of signatures - to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised," Hall told the AJC.

Trump on Sunday again raised unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud in Georgia and told Fox News he was "ashamed" he had previously endorsed Kemp.

Judges in multiple states, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, have dismissed lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign that claimed election fraud but offered no evidence. The president has not yet conceded that Biden has accumulated 306 electoral votes to win the race.

Trump said during his Fox News interview he was "ashamed" he endorsed fellow Republican Kemp after the governor certified the state's presidential election results in favor of Biden. Kemp has called for an audit of the votes.

A recount of the more than 5 million votes cast in the state's presidential election earlier this month is under way at the request of Trump. Trump's campaign filed a petition for recount in Georgia, just a few days after the state completed its own audit.

On Thanksgiving in a brief White House appearance before reporters, Trump said Raffensperger, Georgia's top election official and a Trump-supporting Republican, was "an enemy of the people" and accused him, without evidence, of making a "deal" with Democrat Stacey Abrams to allow vote harvesting in Georgia.

The president also falsely claimed that Raffensperger was hiding "tens of thousands" of illegal votes.

Raffensperger recently said it would be best for Trump to "leave quietly," after the state's election recount confirmed Biden's win.

In an interview published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday, Raffensperger said he had wished the 2020 election would have "been a resounding trumping of the left," but that "it didn't work out that way."

Raffensperger endorsed Trump for president in early 2016, before he was even the clear GOP front-runner.

Trump endorsed Raffensperger for Georgia secretary of state in 2018, tweeting at the time that he would be "fantastic" and "great for jobs," Business Insider reported.