十二月，一会儿签名匹配审核一位知情人士向美国广播公司证实，在佐治亚州的一个县，唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统打电话给国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格(Brad Raffensperger)办公室的首席调查员，要求该官员“找到欺诈行为”，并告诉此人，他们将因此成为“民族英雄”。
《华盛顿邮报》是首先报告在特朗普惊艳亮相前的漫长电话中，长达一小时的电话交谈在《拉芬斯珀格》中，总统对选举舞弊的毫无根据的指控大加指责，并向格鲁吉亚最高选举官员施压，要求他“找到”足够的选票，使他在桃州获胜。
那个电话发生在1月2日，在弹劾条款草案反对民主党最早可能在周一提出的总统提案。
副国务卿乔丹·富克斯(Jordan Fuchs)证实了特朗普和选举调查员之间的通话，但没有提供细节，只是说:“国务卿和国务卿办公室可以确认通话确实发生了。”
白宫拒绝对美国广播公司新闻发表评论。
卡洛斯·巴里亚/路透社，档案
2020年11月13日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普坐在华盛顿白宫椭圆形办公室。
知情人士告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，总统给选举调查员的电话是在白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯(Mark Meadows)前往佐治亚州科布县(Cobb County)试图观察那里进行的签名匹配审计的第二天打来的。由于电话的敏感性，这位知情人士要求匿名。消息人士要求调查人员保持匿名，因为选举官员目前面临的威胁环境。
据美国广播公司新闻报道，12月22日，梅多斯在该县。富克斯当时说，她不允许梅多斯进入拉芬伯格办公室和佐治亚调查局的调查人员进行审计的房间，但她允许他站在门口。
富克斯说，总统的幕僚长问了她“关于流程的基本问题”，还想知道他们是否在进行全州范围的签名审核。拉夫森伯格此前曾宣布，他的办公室与佐治亚大学合作，进行一项全州签名审计研究，富克斯说，她告诉梅多斯。
据富克斯说，梅多斯告诉她，他们“见面很愉快”，无论她能向他提供什么信息，他都会向特朗普汇报。
拉芬伯格在12月14日宣布，科布县将进行签名审计，称有具体可信的指控称，选举官员在6月的初选中没有正确进行签名匹配。
总共有15，118个缺席投票宣誓信封被随机挑选出来进行审核，这些信封是选民签名的地方。
审计于12月29日完成，调查人员只发现了两张不应被接受的选票。在佐治亚州，通过邮件缺席的选民有机会纠正一个有缺陷的缺席投票，GBI说，这些投票应该经过这个过程。
约翰·巴泽莫尔/美联社，档案
2020年12月14日，佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格在亚特兰大的新闻发布会上发言。
但是调查人员也确定这两张选票都不是欺诈性的。
12月30日，GBI董事维克·雷诺兹(Vic Reynolds)在新闻发布会上表示:“我还想记录在案的是，在审计过程中，没有发现任何欺诈性的缺席投票。”。
有一次，选民的配偶代表选民在宣誓信封上签名;在另一封信中，投票人在错误的地方签署了宣誓信。
雷诺兹说，在这两种情况下，审计小组都能够联系到两位选民，并确认他们自己填写了各自的选票。
特朗普及其盟友，包括佐治亚州共和党主席，一再声称佐治亚州大选的签名拒绝率可疑地低于以往的选举，指出这是选举欺诈的证据。但是拉芬伯格和他办公室的其他官员说这不是真的发布数据反驳那些声明。
拉夫森伯格办公室的投票系统实施经理加布里埃尔·斯特林(Gabriel Sterling)此前曾表示，那些对签名拒绝率做出不正确断言的人是在比较“苹果和橘子”，因为他们正在将签名拒绝率与前几次选举的完全拒绝率进行比较。整个拒绝率包括截止日期后收到的缺席选票，斯特林说，迟到的选票占被拒绝的缺席选票的“绝大多数”。
On December call, Trump urged Georgia elections investigator to 'find the fraud': Source
In December, while asignature match auditwas ongoing in one Georgia county, President Donald Trump phoned a chief investigator in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office asking the official to "find the fraud" and telling this person they would be a "national hero" for it, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The Washington Post wasfirst to reporton the lengthy phone call, which occurred before Trump's stunning,hourlong phone conversationwith Raffensperger in which the president ranted about baseless allegations of election fraud and pressured Georgia's top elections official to "find" enough votes to deliver him a win in the Peach State.
That call, which took place on Jan. 2, is noted in thedraft article of impeachmentagainst the president that Democrats could introduce as early as Monday.
Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs confirmed the call between Trump and the elections investigator took place without offering details, saying only: "The secretary and the secretary of state's office can confirm that the call did happen."
The White House declined to comment to ABC News.
The source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the call, told ABC News that the president's call to the elections investigator occurred the day after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows traveled to Cobb County, Georgia, attempting to observe the signature match audit taking place there. The source asked that investigator remain unnamed because of the current threat environment election officials are facing.
Meadows was in the county on Dec. 22, ABC News previously reported. Fuchs said at the time that she did not allow Meadows to enter the room where investigators from Raffensperger's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were doing the audit, but she did allow him to stand in the doorway.
Fuchs said that the president's chief of staff asked her "basic questions about the process," and also wanted to know if they were doing a statewide signature audit. Raffensperger had previously announced his office partnered with the University of Georgia to conduct a statewide signature audit study, which Fuchs said she told Meadows.
According to Fuchs, Meadows told her they had "a good meeting" and that whatever information she was able to provide to him, he would report back to Trump.
Raffensperger announced on Dec. 14 that Cobb County would conduct a signature audit, saying there were specific and credible allegations that signature matching wasn't done properly by election officials in the June primary.
A total of 15,118 absentee ballot oath envelopes, which is where voters sign, were randomly selected to be audited.
The audit was completed on Dec. 29, and investigators only found two ballots that should not have been accepted as they were. In Georgia, absentee by mail voters have the opportunity to cure a deficient absentee ballot, and the GBI said that these ballots should have gone through that process.
But the investigators also determined that neither of these ballots were fraudulently cast.
"I would also note for the record as well that during the course of the audit, there were no fraudulent absentee ballots identified in the process," GBI Director Vic Reynolds said in a press conference on Dec. 30.
In one instance, the voter's spouse signed the oath envelope on the voter's behalf; in the other, the voter signed the oath envelope in the wrong place.
In both cases, the audit team was able to contact both voters and confirm they had filled out their respective ballots themselves, Reynolds said.
Trump and allies, including the Georgia Republican Party chairman, repeatedly claimed that the signature rejection rate in Georgia for the general election was suspiciously lower than past elections, pointing to this as evidence of election fraud. But Raffensperger and other officials in his office have said this isn't true, andreleased figures to refutethose claims.
Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager in Raffensperger's office, has previously said that those making incorrect assertions about signatures rejection rates are comparing "apples and oranges" because they are comparing the signature rejection rate to the full rejection rates from previous elections. The entire rejection rate includes absentee ballots that are received after the deadline, and Sterling said late arriving ballots account for the "vast majority" of rejected absentee ballots.
