Former Georgia GOP leaders worry Republicans won't turn out amid electoral fraud claims

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Sixteen former Georgia GOP leaders warned their fellow Republicans in a letter that conservative voters will think their votes don't matter in the upcoming Senate runoff elections, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

"We have watched with increasing concern as the debate surrounding the state's electoral system has made some within our Party consider whether voting in the coming run-off election matters," leaders including former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and former Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., wrote according to the Journal-Constitution.

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"[W]ithout every vote cast for President Trump and all our Republican candidates on November 3 also being cast in the U.S. Senate runoffs, the trajectory of our State and Nation will be irreparably altered on January 5th," they continued.

Gabriel Sterling, a top Georgia elections official speaks on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020, during a news conference in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Other signatories include former Sen. Mack Mattingly, former Georgia state Senate Minority Leader Eric Johnson and former general counsel for the United States Department of Homeland Security Joe Whitley.

"Indeed, we have an obligation to assure every Georgia citizen -- regardless of ideology -- that free and fair elections are what distinguish our Republic from all others,” they wrote. “However, we cannot let this ongoing work detract from a mission that only Georgia Republicans can accomplish: maintaining control of the U.S. Senate[.]"

The letter, which doesn't mention President Trump or whether he won or lost the election, comes as the president questions the state's certified election results. 

However, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, one of the letter's signatories, referred to 2020 as "an election that didn’t end in victory" in a tweet on Tuesday.

Trump called on Gov. Brian Kemp to override Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, on matching signatures during the state's recount on Monday. 

A spokesman for Kemp issued a statement in response Tuesday morning, saying that “Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections.”

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“The secretary of state, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order,” Kemp spokesman Cody Hall said in a statement. "As the governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the secretary of state to take reasonable steps – including a sample audit of signatures – to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised.”

Fox News' Paul Conner and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.