The news followed an earlier announcement that the secretary of state's office would be cooperating with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to conduct a limited signature matching review in Cobb County, the state's third most populous county, after President Donald Trump and his allies for weeks advocated for such a review.
"Now that the signature matching has been attacked again and again with no evidence, I feel we need to take steps to restore confidence in our elections," Raffensperger told reporters Monday.
In a news release providing more details about the forthcoming statewide audit, the secretary of state's office said that they would be working with the University of Georgia on a "randomized signature match study of election materials handled at the county level in the November 3 Presidential contest."
"This work will also include research on processes used at the county level to perform signature-matching," the news release added. "The work UGA will perform is a study of a sample of signed envelopes in each county from the presidential election."
"We are confident that elections in Georgia are secure, reliable, and effective," Raffensperger said. "Despite endless lawsuits and wild allegations from Washington, D.C. pundits, we have seen no actual evidence of widespread voter fraud, though we are investigating all credible reports. Nonetheless, we look forward to working with the University of Georgia on this signature match review to further instill confidence in Georgia's voting systems."
