Georgia has certified the 2020 General Election. Former Vice President Joe Biden has won Georgia–the first time a Democrat presidential nominee has won the state since 1992.
Georgia Republicans are understandably shell-shocked by the results, and I’m sure a lot of this questioning of the integrity of the election comes denial. I inherently trust the integrity of our elections process in Georgia, but I believed it was a good idea to have a hand-counted audit of the new election system to ensure that the vote totals are accurate (it is).
I also support an audit of the signatures on the envelopes–something that was urged by Governor Brian Kemp on Friday and supported by the Georgia GOP Executive Committee over the weekend. The signatures on mail-in absentee ballots are validated by elections officials trained by the GBI, but an audit should reinforce confidence in our elections process.
I believe these audits will give Georgia voters confidence in our processes and procedures as well as expose potential vulnerabilities that can be resolved by the Secretary of State or by the Georgia General Assembly. I also believe that these audits will, hopefully, shutdown talk by the Trump campaign that call into question the integrity and validity of the election–talk that is mostly just conjured up conspiracy rather than facts displayed for the public to see.
An audit won’t likely change the outcome of the election, but it should give us confidence that our institution is strong–regardless of the Democrats or Republicans who struggle to accept the outcome of this election or elections to come.