In a virtual hearing on elections before the Georgia state House Governmental Affairs Committee, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said for the first time that he supports changing state law so that voters must have an excuse to request an absentee ballot.

The Georgia Senate Republican Caucus called for this in a Dec. 8 statement.

"This cycle has shown, we need to move to an excuse-based system for absentee voting. The no-excuses system voted into law in 2005 -- long before most of you, if not all of you, long before I was in the General Assembly -- it makes no sense when we have three weeks of in-person, early voting available. It opens the door to potential illegal voting," Raffensperger said.

As the secretary noted in his remarks, no excuse absentee voting has been legal in Georgia since 2005 -- so this would be a significant change.

As he has done before, he also advocated for a change in the state law to require voters have ID -- as opposed to signature matching -- for requesting and submitting absentee ballots.

Despite calling for these changes -- and despite saying there are "real substantive questions" about the election -- Raffensperger still maintained that "the vast majority of claims we have seen online and in the media, and even discussed in the halls of the Capitol are simply unfounded," going on to note that far-right news organizations are issuing retractions over their coverage.

-ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan.

The morning after President Trump said he is not ready to sign the COVID-19 relief bill passed by both the House and the Senate, the Department of Labor said another 803,000 workers lost their job and filed for unemployment insurance last week.

Trump revealed his position on the bill on Twitter in a move giving both Democrats and Republicans a headache after he had been expected to sign the bipartisan deal this week.

The president is asking that the bill be reworked in order to give every American a $2,000 stimulus check instead of the $600 that was negotiated. Democrats had called for more money in the stimulus checks, but Republicans pushed back on the higher amount.

The bill was crafted by Senate Republicans, led by Trump ally Mitch McConnell, in tandem with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, one of Trump's closest Cabinet members.

In the wake of Trump’s announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted that, “Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks. At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!” Fellow Democrats echoed her sentiment.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, pushed for Trump to sign the bill as is, tweeting: "We spent months trying to secure $2000 checks but Republicans blocked it. Trump needs to sign the bill to help people and keep the government open and we're glad to pass more aid Americans need."

It’s unclear what comes next for Congressional Republican leaders. Mnuchin had already promised the $600 direct payments would be going out next week.

Biden has not publicly responded yet. On Tuesday, however, he welcomed the news of the bill passing, telling Americans on Twitter that while the work is far from over, “help is on the way.”

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on Wednesday announced additional members he's naming to the White House counsel's office, a slate of four deputies who will all work under previously announced incoming White House counsel Dana Remus.

Biden and Harris announced Jonathan Cedarbaum as deputy counsel to the president and national security council legal advisor, Danielle Conley as deputy counsel to the president, Stuart Delery as deputy counsel to the president and Jonathan Su as deputy counsel to the president.

"The charge facing our administration is as big as it is essential: restoring faith in American government,” Biden said in a statement. “We are assembling an accomplished and experienced legal team to ensure this administration operates ethically, transparently and always in service of the American people.”

-ABC News’ John Verhovek.

A Dominion Voting Systems employee has filed a defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump, attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, among others, alleging they helped elevate a "false and baseless" conspiracy theory about him as part of their election rigging [claims[() against the voting machine company.

The suit marks the start of what could be an onslaught of litigation against the president and his allies, who mounted challenges to the election based on false allegations of fraud and fierce conspiracy theories. Some conservative outlets in recent days have begun airing retractions as the threat of litigation looms.

Eric Coomer, the Director of Product Strategy and Security for Dominion, says he has faced death threats and harassment as a result of the "baseless and unequivocally false" conspiracy theory about him, which claimed he had admitted to rigging Dominion machines against Trump on an "Antifa conference call."

"Without concern for the truth or the consequences of their reckless conduct, Defendants branded Dr. Coomer a traitor to the United States, a terrorist, and a criminal of the highest order," Coomer wrote in his complaint. "While this theory has been thoroughly rejected, its immediate and life-threatening effects remain very real."

The suit, filed in state court in Colorado, is separate from the heavy legal challenge Dominion as a company is expected to mount on its own against Sidney Powell.

In his complaint, Coomer says the threats have escalated to the point where he had to leave his home and "sever ties" with friends and family to stay in seclusion after the theory-- part of a broader conspiracy theory that the Dominion voting machine company rigged the election for Biden-- went viral on social media.

-ABC News' Olivia Rubin

Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who has maintained a strong anti-illegal immigration stance during her short tenure in office, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for her Georgia Senate runoff campaign from donors linked to a family owned company that was forced to pay out more than $95 million in fines for unlawful immigration practices and alleged hiring discrimination, disclosure records show.

Between late November and early December, Loeffler's campaign received more than $28,000 in contributions from at least 11 members of the Asplundh family, according to new campaign finance reports filed to the Federal Election Commission. The Asplundh family owns and operates the large, privately held Asplundh Tree Expert Company, which has done work for the U.S. Department of Energy.

In 2017, the Pennsylvania-based tree-trimming and vegetation management company had to pay the largest civil settlement ever levied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a yearslong investigation resulted in the company pleading guilty to "unlawfully employing aliens." Additionally, in January 2019, Asplundh agreed to pay $55,000 in back wages to settle hiring discrimination allegations stemming from one of its facilities in Georgia.

ABC News sent a detailed email to two staffers on Loeffler's campaign that outlined the company's past settlement over its unlawful immigration practices and back pay for alleged discrimination. In addition to asking for a general comment on the donations and the company's past, ABC News also asked if the campaign knew that members of the Asplundh family had donated and intentionally excluded their occupations and employers; if the campaign -- given the senator's stance on immigration and the company's infraction in Georgia -- wanted their support and their donations; and if the campaign did not want their support or donation, if they would refund them.

In response, Loeffler's deputy campaign manager, Stephen Lawson, replied, "[W]e're marking your email as spam. Please don't ever email us again."In a follow-up email a minute later, Loeffler's press secretary, Caitlin O'Dea, wrote, "And Merry Christmas!"

The Asplundh family did not respond to requests for comment, either.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan and Soo Rin Kim