Georgia secretary of state announces signature match audit of ballots in Cobb County after claims of voter fraud

Georgia's secretary of state announced an audit of signature matching for ballots in Cobb County after claims of voter fraud.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a media briefing Monday that he ordered the audit in order to restore Georgians' faith in the election.

"As a conservative Constitutional Republican, I believe the best place to land is when judgements are made based on the Constitution. My goal is to make our elections accurate and secure, and believed by the voters," Raffensperger said.

He added that his office has alerted counties since January that the election processes have been open to public review, but that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans "availed themselves of this legal viewing of our election processes."

Raffensperger said that there had been no evidence of fraud in the signature matching system.

"And now that the signature matching has been attacked again and again, with no evidence, I feel we need to take steps to restore confidence in our elections," he continued.

He went on to say that he would be working on a "third party signature match statewide audit study" developed with a credited university.

He also tweeted about the decision from his official social media account.

"Our office will be partnering with [the Georgia Bureau of Investigation] to conduct a signature match audit in Cobb County following specific reports that the county failed to adequately conduct signature matching. This audit will take around two weeks but will not change the outcome of the November elections," he tweeted.

"We will also be working with an accredited university on a third-party signature match statewide audit study. Together, we will restore faith." he added in a second tweet.

In November, Raffensperger said that he had been calling out officials who were making false accusations of voter fraud, and he specifically explained how he had strengthened signature match for the election.

"On signature match, we've actually strengthened signature match. Many people don't realize that it requires you to do your signature twice, once for the application, we signature match then, and a second time when your ballot comes back in, then we'll signature match that," he said during an interview on MSNBC.

Electors of the Electoral College voted to confirm Joe Biden's presidential victory on Monday, but President Donald Trump was still challenging those results through legal action.

Here's the announcement from Raffensperger:

Georgia secretary of state announces Cobb County signature auditwww.youtube.com