David Perdue, Who Quickly Conceded Georgia Senate Race, Now Suing Over Absentee Ballots
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Former Georgia Sen. David Perdue, who this week launched a bid to challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for the 2022 nomination, is suing to inspect ballots from the 2020 election nearly a year after he lost and conceded to Democrat Jon Ossoff in a runoff race.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Perdue on Friday filed a lawsuit which seeks to inspect absentee ballots in Fulton County for signs of alleged fraud.
Mark Niesse with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
Perdue’s complaint, filed four days after he launched his campaign, revives a series of failed lawsuits by supporters of former President Donald Trump searching for fraud in last year’s election.
Perdue has put false claims of election fraud at the center of his campaign against incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The former U.S. senator said he wouldn’t have certified the election results and wanted a special legislative session to delve into conspiracy theories about the outcome.
Perdue was quoted in a statement as having said that he is seeking a forensic audit of ballots from the 2020 race in Georgia’s most-populous county.
“I want to use my position and legal standing to shine light on what I know were serious violations of Georgia law in the Fulton absentee ballot tabulation,” Perdue said through his legal team, the Associated Press reported. “We are asking a judge to consider the evidence after our forensic examination of the absentee ballots is completed and hold those persons responsible who engaged in this wrongful conduct.”
Perdue did not contest his own race against Ossoff in January, where he was defeated nearly 55,000 votes. The former GOP senator conceded days after the Jan. 4 election and congratulated his opponent.
“I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win,” Perdue said, the AP reported.
Tensions between Perdue and Kemp are rising as the former seeks to represent the Republican Party in next year’s general election. Kemp spokesman Cody Hall commented on Perdue’s lawsuit on Friday and questioned the timing of Perdue’s legal filing.
“David Perdue is so concerned about election fraud that he waited a year to file a lawsuit that conveniently coincided with his disastrous campaign launch,” said Hall.
