Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday night responded to President Donald Trump's tweet several hours earlier asking when signature verification would happen for ballots in the state's Fulton County.
Trump tweeted:
"When are we going to be allowed to do signature verification in Fulton County, Georgia? The process is going VERY slowly. @BrianKempGA Pennsylvania just found 205,000 votes more than they had voters. Therefore, we WIN Pennsylvania!!!"
Kemp, a fellow Republican, said he had no authority to order an audit of signatures.
"Per the [Georgia] constitution, the election administrative duties fall on the secretary of state," Kemp told Fox News. "I obviously know that because I was secretary of state at one time. So, I don't have the ability to call for a signature audit or to order an audit.
"I have called for the signature audit over a month ago. I have done that repeatedly, urging the secretary of state to do that. I thought that would help give assurances to the voters in our state to make sure that process was working and that it worked the way it was supposed to Nov. 3. That was completed today."
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Tuesday a ballot signature match audit in Cobb County produced "no fraudulent absentee ballots," and confirmed the "original outcome" of the November 2020 presidential race.
Kemp said he had offered the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to assist with the Cobb County audit and instructed officials to "follow the truth and the facts wherever they may go."
"I let the results of that audit speak for theirself [Tuesday]," Kemp said, "but there wasn't much there."
As a sometimes target of the president's tweets and comments, Kemp was asked about his relationship with President Trump.
"I've supported this president going into the reelect, worked as hard as anybody in the state and in the country to help him," Kemp said. "I've supported the legal efforts they're doing but also at the end of the day, I have to follow the laws and the constitution of this state and that's what I've been doing and that's what I'll continue to do."
Kemp added there has been and will be transparency for the Jan. 5 Senate runoff, in which more than 2 million Georgians had voted already.
Incumbent Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and David Perdue, R-Ga., are opposing Democrat candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the runoffs.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.