Georgia secretary of state recertifies results confirming Biden win after third count

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Georgia Secretary of State on presidential race: ‘The results are the results’

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger discusses presidential election results, Senate runoffs on ‘CAVUTO Live.’

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recertified his state's presidential election results on Monday, following a second recount that once again upheld President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state.

Raffensperger, a Republican and a supporter of President Trump, also pushed back against a barrage of criticism from the president, telling reporters that “disinformation regarding election administration should be condemned and rejected. Integrity matters. Truth matters.”

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Georgia has counted the presidential vote three times – the initial count from the Nov. 3 election, an ensuing full election recount and audit mandated by Raffensperger, and a machine recount requested by the Trump campaign. All three showed Biden topping Trump by roughly 12,000 votes out of nearly 5 million cast in the state. Biden became the first Democrat to carry Georgia in a presidential election in more than a quarter of a century.

"Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country," the secretary of state said in a statement. "Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly, and reliably."

Earlier in the day at a news conference at the Georgia Capitol, Raffensperger noted that “it’s been 34 days since the election on Nov. 3....we have now counted legally cast ballots three times and the results remain unchanged.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference, Nov. 20, 2020, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

But the president has refused to concede to Biden or admit defeat, as he has repeatedly claimed that there was widespread voter fraud in the presidential election. Trump has taken numerous unsuccessful legal steps to reverse the election results in Georgia and other battleground states where he was edged by Biden.

The president has continued his push to overturn the election results. On Friday, his campaign filed a challenge to the election in Georgia, asking a state court to vacate the certification of the presidential election results and order a new vote in the state.

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Trump also urged Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature to overturn the election results. Kemp rebuffed the effort, saying in a statement Sunday night that it would be a violation of the law for him to call state lawmakers back into session to reverse the election tally.

The president has repeatedly slammed Kemp, Raffensperger, as well as Georgia Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan, in recent days. And at a rally in Valdosta, Ga., on Saturday, as he campaigned for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the GOP candidates in the state’s twin Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections, Trump lashed out at Kemp.

“Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing,” Trump insisted.

Raffensperger on Monday, referring to both Trump and 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, who claimed that her razor thin defeat was due in part to Kemp’s suppression of the vote, said that “whether it is the president of the United States or a failed gubernatorial candidate, disinformation regarding election administration should be condemned and rejected. Integrity matters. Truth matters.”

“All this talk of a stolen election, whether its Stacey Abrams or the president of the United States, is hurting our state,” Raffensperger added. “Continuing to make debunked claims of a stolen election is hurting our state.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ELECTION RESULTS FROM FOX NEWS

“I know there are people who are convinced the election was fraught with problems, but the evidence, the actual evidence, the facts, tell us a different story,” the secretary of state stressed.

The recertification by Raffensperger comes a day before "safe harbor" on Dec. 8, the federal government deadline by which states are required to resolve all election disputes. The Electoral College meets next Monday, Dec. 14, to formally elect Biden as the country’s next president.

Raffensperger touted that “as secretary of state, I worked to secure the vote for all Georgians. On day one we outlawed ballot harvesting, we strengthened signature match.”

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He also spotlighted that he was Georgia’s first secretary of state “to implement a driver’s license requirement for online absentee ballot applications, which strengthened the security of our absentee ballot application.”