Perdue, Loeffler back Trump call for Georgia recount, more signature matching

As President Trump's campaign officially requested another recount of ballots in Georgia over the weekend, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the Republicans in the critical Jan. 5 Senate runoff races in the state, backed the recount effort as they continue to slam the handling of Georgia's vote tallies in the presidential election. 

Loeffler and Perdue both previously called for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign, saying, "The management of Georgia elections has become an embarrassment for our state." An initial recount commissioned by Raffensperger did not erase a lead of less than one half of one percent that Biden holds.

Now that Raffensperger has certified the Biden win, the Trump campaign is requesting another recount, which is within its rights due to the close margin of the Biden victory. The campaign is emphasizing that "signature matching" must be a part of the new recount or else "this would be as phony as the initial vote count and recount." 

Loeffler and Perdue also called for signature matching in the new recount. But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that officials cannot engage in signature matching on this next recount because after signature matching is conducted a first time, when ballots are counted, the envelopes with signatures are separated from the ballots to ensure the secrecy of individual votes. 

"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," Perdue said in a tweet despite the fact further signature matching is not possible. "Anything less than that will not be a full and transparent recount."

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Perdue added: "I have spoken to President Trump several times in the last week about this, and as I have said from the beginning: every legal vote cast, should be counted. Any illegal vote shouldn’t. Georgians deserve full transparency and uniformity in the counting process."

Loeffler backed the Trump campaign's recount request and its demand for further signature matching in a very similar statement. 

"I fully support President @realDonaldTrump's request for a recount in Georgia," Loeffler said. "We must match and verify absentee ballot signatures to their corresponding voter registration signatures, investigate all voting irregularities, and count only the votes that were legally cast."

"This isn’t about politics — this is about the foundation of our democracy. Every Georgian — and every American — deserves to have confidence in the integrity of our state’s election results, and this process is the best way to make that happen," the senator said in a separate tweet. 

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The Biden campaign, in response to the Trump recount request, said that it will simply "reaffirm Joe Biden's victory in Georgia a third time," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On signature matching, the Biden campaign said "both parties were aware of the rules set fore months before the election and all signatures have already been matched."