Third and final Georgia audit rejects Trump fraud claims and confirms Biden victory

Signature audit was the first of its kind ever conducted in the state, and the third recount held amid Trump’s claims of fraud

A signature audit in Georgia has yet again ruled out the allegations of fraud or rigging levelled by President Donald Trump, confirming Joe Biden’s victory in the key state for the third time.

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger released a statement saying that the signature review in Cobb County found that the elections were not fraudulent and had a 99.99 per cent accuracy rate when it came to performing correct signature verification procedures. Mr Biden won the county by over 12,000 votes.

“The Secretary of State’s office has always been focused on calling balls and strikes in elections and, in this case, three strikes against the voter fraud claims and they’re out,” said Mr Raffensperger. 

“We conducted a statewide hand recount that reaffirmed the initial tally, and a machine recount at the request of the Trump campaign that also reaffirmed the original tally. This audit disproves the only credible allegations the Trump campaign had against the strength of Georgia’s signature match processes.”

Speaking to WSBTV2 Atlanta, Mr Raffensperger explained the audit included 15,000 votes and only two mismatched signatures emerged, which came from a wife who signed her name to ballots for both her and her husband. 

The signature audit was the third re-verification process after a hand recount, a formality due to the closeness of the result, and then a machine recount that the Trump campaign had requested. 

A claim related to a signature match in Cobb County appeared in one of the lawsuits filed by Mr Trump and his team, after which Mr Raffensperger announced the audit.

The Trump campaign has made Georgia one of its prime targets for overturning the election result, stating that widespread rigging in the state cost the Republican a second term. Mr Trump has also publicly and repeatedly criticised the Republican Mr Raffensperger for apparently not investigating his claims. 

Mr Biden won Georgia with 2,473,633 votes, almost 12,000 more than Mr Trump received, to claim the first Democrat win in the state for 28 years. 

Lawsuits filed by the Trump team in other states have also largely been either rejected and withdrawn, and the Electoral College has met to formally name Mr Biden as president-elect. He will be sworn in as president, whether Mr Trump concedes defeat or not, on 20 January.