Published 12:55 IST, January 5th 2021
Georgia's election official debunks Trump's claims of voter fraud
Top election official from the Peach state assured that “everybody’s vote did count” in the November 3 presidential elections, debunked Trump's theories.
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Following the call between Georgia officials and the out-voted US President Donald Trump, where he urged to "find" votes, a top election official from the Peach state on January 4 has responded. The senior Georgia election official, Gabriel Sterling has dismissed all the baseless claims that Trump aired in the telephonic conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger this weekend, just days before President-elect Joe Biden is to swear in. He assured that every vote was counted in the November 3 presidential elections.
"The reason I'm having to stand here today is because there are people in positions of authority and respect who have said their votes didn't count, and it's not true," said Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's office, during a press conference.
The audio was first reported by The Washington Post and obtained by several media outlets. In the audio clip, Trump can be heard urging Raffensperger, who is also a Republican to “find” votes in order to overturn the election results in Georgia which he lost to Biden. While Raffensperger can be heard rejecting Trump’s demand, in the stunning one-hour call, Trump even lambasted the fellow Republican for refusing to falsely say that he won the election in the battleground state.
‘It’s not a real thing’ says Sterling
The outgoing US President even catalogued a series of baseless claims regarding voter fraud with Raffensperger saying that the data Trump was quoting is ‘wrong’. While the phonecall caused a stir in US politics, Sterling said on January 4 that Trump’s baseless claims are “all easily, provably false” and ran through the conspiracy theories that have been floated by the US President in the conversation with Raffensperger. Rejecting Trump’s claims about ballots being shredded, Sterling said, “There is no shredding of ballots going on. That's not real. It's not happening.”
While addressing Trump’s questions about Dominion voting machines being removed, Sterling asserted: "No one is changing parts or pieces out of Dominion voting machines. I don't even know what that means...It's not a real thing. That's not happening.”
With inauguration day being less than 20 days away, media reports also published Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the outgoing President urged the officials to overturn the results. In the call, which has already led to vice president-elect Kamala Harris bash Trump, the out-voted President can be heard telling the Georgia officials to ‘find’ votes. At one instance in the conversation, Trump said, "So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” He then added, “You should want to have an accurate election. And you're a Republican."
12:55 IST, January 5th 2021