Perdue, Loeffler Join Trump Call for New Georgia Recount

Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., endorsed President Donald Trump's call for a second round of the election results in the state, insisting on a signature match of absentee ballots with those on voter registration lists.

Perdue tweeted Sunday:

"I support President Trump's request for a recount in Georgia, one in which signatures on absentee ballot envelopes are properly matched and verified to their signature on the registration. Anything less than that will not be a full and transparent recount."

Loeffler, likewise, echoed the sentiments in a Twitter post of her own, writing the recount must "count only the votes that were legally cast."

The Trump campaign Saturday filed for a second Georgia election recount, saying the first failed to include signature matching and "other vital safeguards."

Both Perdue and Loeffler are facing Jan. 5 runoff elections against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock after no one in the multi-candidate elections received more than 50% of the vote.

Rev. Warnock led Loeffler 32.9%-25.91%. But Loeffler and fellow Republican Doug Collins plus four other Republicans in a race with 20 candidates received a combined 49.3% of the vote compared to about 48.4% for Warnock and the next seven Democrats.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified the victory for Democrat Joe Biden after a first recount reduced the margin of victory to 12,670 votes out of about 5 million cast.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp asked Raffensperger last week to conduct an audit of signatures on ballot envelopes because of accusations from the Trump campaign and others.

"It's important to note that this audit only looked at ballots, not the signatures of the absentee applications or the signatures on the ballot envelopes," Kemp said. "It seems simple enough to conduct a sample audit of signatures on the absentee ballot envelopes and compare those to the signatures on applications and on file at the secretary of state's office."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the request cannot be accommodated because the signatures on the ballot envelopes are matched when they are counted the first time, but then the ballots are separated from the envelope.

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