Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Monday denied claims by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that he pressured the fellow Republican not to count legally cast ballots in the state's presidential election.
Georgia is currently in the middle of a hand recount in the razor-thin presidential election tally, with Democrat Joe Biden ahead by 14,000 votes in the initial count.
But President Donald Trump is challenging the result in Georgia and other states, hoping to see a second term.
Raffensperger told The Washington Post he has been pressured by fellow Republicans, including Graham, to not count some votes, but Graham told reporters Monday that Raffensperger misinterpreted his comments.
"I'm asking him to explain to me the system," Graham said, according to The Hill.
"If you send a mail-in ballot to a county, a single person verifies the signature against what's in the database," Graham said. "They don't mail out ballots. You got to actually request one. So they expanded mail-in voting, and how you verify the signature, to me, is the big issue of mail-in voting."
"If you're going to have mail-in voting, you got to verify the person who signed the envelope is also the person" in the voter database, he said.
When asked why a senator for South Carolina was questioning a Georgia election official about that state's balloting procedures, Graham replied, "it affects the whole nation."
He added of Raffensperger's fears of intimidation, "If he feels threatened by that conversation, he's got a problem. I actually thought it was a good conversation."
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