Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger fires back against Trump’s false claims about election

After a barrage of unfounded claims from President Donald Trump questioning various aspects of Georgia’s voting system, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger fired back.

In a series of Facebook posts from the Secretary of State page, Raffensperger, a Republican, addressed claims about the makers of the state’s election system, Dominion, as well as claims made by the president about Georgia’s recount and absentee ballots system.

Raffensperger has faced a string of attacks. Last week he was under fire from his own party. Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue — both up for re-election in the Jan. 5 runoff — called for his resignation.

In a series of tweets over the past three days, Trump incorrectly claimed Georgia election officials are unable to verify signatures on absentee ballot envelopes because of a legal settlement known as a consent decree.

In a Saturday tweet, Trump claimed in a tweet: “The Consent Decree signed by the Georgia Secretary of State, with the approval of Governor @BrianKempGA, at the urging of @staceyabrams, makes it impossible to check & match signatures on ballots and envelopes, etc. They knew they were going to cheat. Must expose real signatures!”

But the reality is: nothing in the consent decree stops Georgia election clerks from scrutinizing signatures. The legal settlement signed in March addresses accusations about a lack of statewide standards for judging signatures on absentee ballot envelopes.

Raffensperger, in an uncharacteristically aggressive retort, drove this point home on Facebook, including a shot at former Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican who was gunning for the senate seat currently held by Loeffler. Collins, who didn’t get enough votes to make it into the runoff, has repeated Trump's misleading claims about the Georgia recount.