For months, President Donald Trump has warned widespread voter fraud would steal his reelection. And since the presidential race was called in favor of Joe Biden, Georgia’s U.S. senators have now jumped on that bandwagon.
Neither Trump nor Republican U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have offered any evidence or specific examples. But that hasn’t stopped them from calling for their fellow Republican, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to resign.
Raffensperger said in a statement this week that’s not going to happen.
“If I was Senator Perdue, I’d be irritated I was in a runoff,” Raffensperger wrote.
“And both Senators and I are all unhappy with the potential outcome for our President.”
He went on to argue that Loeffler and Perdue’s particular charge of lack of transparency from his office was laughable, as “we were literally putting releases of results up at a minimum hourly,” he wrote.
“I and my office have been holding daily or twice-daily briefings for the press to walk them through all the numbers.”
Raffensperger said the average wait time to vote on Election Day was three minutes, and nearly 5 million Georgians cast a vote in this election — a record turnout, with nearly 75% of Georgians voting in person, while 25% voted via absentee ballots.
Amid the drama and accusations from Georgia Republicans, a former Georgia secretary of state said she credits Raffensperger and county officials for successfully running what could have been a chaotic nightmare, compared to the June 9 primaries.
Cathy Cox served as Georgia’s secretary of state from 1999 until 2007, under both Republican and Democratic governors. She is now dean of Mercer University’s School of Law.
Cox told WABE’s “All Things Considered” host Jim Burress that she was frustrated with Republicans’ allegations, and baseless claims without serving proper evidence.
Lily Oppenheimer contributed to this report.
