3 hr 57 min ago
Georgia's secretary of state says he has not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud
From CNN's Josiah Ryan
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on Wednesday, November 11, in Atlanta. Brynn Anderson/AP
Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger today said he has seen no evidence of voter fraud that could upend President-elect Joe Biden's lead of about 14,000 votes, even as he prepares to begin a process that will lead to a statewide recount.
"We have ongoing investigations but we've not seen something widespread of a large nature, nothing in the order of over 10,000," said Raffensperger, when asked CNN's Wolf Blitzer if he had seen evidence of mass voter fraud.
Georgia announced earlier on Wednesday that there would be
a full hand recount of the presidential race in the state.
Raffensperger noted there has never been a recount in the state that has changed the vote by a margin large enough for President Trump to overtake Biden's lead.
"We believe that the ballots were counted accurately with the machine count and the risk-limiting audit ... the hand counts of the statewide recount will confirm that," he said.
Raffensperger is preparing for the audit under calls for his resignation from both incumbent Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue who have alleged, without evidence, that the state's election process was faulty. Both senators appear to be headed for runoff elections in January.
Neither of those candidates have provided his office with evidence of wrongdoing so far, Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger also noted he had launched the recount process independent of any pressure from the White House saying, "they haven't called me."