Perdue Says He Would Not Have Certified Georgia's Election Results

Trump-endorsed Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, the state's former GOP senator, said he would not have signed the certification of the electoral votes for Joe Biden last year until allegations of voter fraud were investigated.

"The problems in the 2020 election started long before any votes were cast," Perdue said in a statement to Newsmax on Wednesday. "They started when Brian Kemp caved to Stacey Abrams and the Democrats, giving them control of our elections.

"Look, this is common sense — any issues should be investigated and audited before an election is certified. Get the answers, then certify. How can you certify something with so many questions around it? Not just in 2020, but in general."

The governor's signature is needed to certify the state's presidential election results, and if he were governor at the time — the position he will be running for in the 2022 midterm GOP primary — Perdue would not have signed the certification to send the electors to Congress.

"Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now," Perdue told Axios. "They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn't have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that's all we were asking for."

Perdue announced this week he will run against primary incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp before the 2022 midterms. Perdue immediately earned the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, while Kemp has been a frequent target of Trump criticism over the handling of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

If he had been governor a year ago, Perdue told Axios, he would have called a special session of the Georgia state legislature to address allegations of election fraud — a move Kemp refused to make, despite the former president's urging.

The session was not to overturn the election results, but "protect and fix what was wrong for the January election," Perdue told Axios.

"I have never called to overturn an election, but certainly we should have gotten to the bottom of the issues of alleged fraud and irregularities, dealt with them, and had a special session to fix them before the January election," Perdue added to Newsmax in his statement. "That's what I said at the time, but Brian Kemp refused. When I'm governor, we will have the safest and securest elections in the country."

Another target of Trump's ire, Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, claimed a legislative session would amount to "nullifying the will of the people," Axios reported.

Perdue told Axios he conceded his loss to Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., but he did want the election process reviewed to confirm it was free, fair, and devoid of fraud.

"I've never asked for a reversal," he continued. "What I've asked for is to get this cleaned up, to make sure that our elections going forward are fair and can rebuild the confidence of people."

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