Published 19:31 IST, November 11th 2020
'High hurdle': Donald Trump campaign seeks 'hand recount' of 5 million ballots in Georgia
In a letter dispatched by Rep. Collins, Donald Trump’s campaign lead for the recount team in Georgia, and state Rep. Chairman Shafer, republicans alleged fraud.
Republicans on November 10 made demands to Georgia’s chief elections officer that Georgia’s nearly 5 million ballots must be “fully hand-counted” to ensure election integrity and rule out “fraud”. The request comes after the Associated Press declared Biden the projected winner who leads in Georgia with a razor-thin margin of 12,291 votes lead. Pushing the unsubstantiated claim of widespread voter fraud on social media, President Trump’s Republican Party demanded a recount in Wisconsin and hand recount in the crucial Georgia Senate runoffs, although a recounting the ballots hasn’t made a difference in the history of US’ statewide election.
“Fraud,” Tyler Zed wrote on Facebook on Nov. 4, after claims that the Dem volunteers were going door-to-door to cure Georgia ballots emerged. Zed shared a screenshot of a tweet from David Litt, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama that depicted him asking for volunteers to cure rejected mail-in ballots in Georgia. As Biden leads with an estimated 99 percent vote count in the state, the Republicans decried fowl, which the US National Conference of State Legislatures clarified as the signature discrepancy.
In a letter dispatched by US Rep. Doug Collins, President Donald Trump’s campaign lead for the recount team in Georgia, and state Republican Party Chairman David Shafer accessed by sources of the Associated Press, the Republican party asserted “major fraud”. A formal request with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was made to halt the results until the 5 million ballots were physically tabulated with hand.
State of Georgia 'failed'
Trump campaign, which alleged that the state of Georgia “failed” initiated a legal blitz in swing states, including the state of Arizona where Republicans might contest the current vote deficit. Reps could rope in other states where Biden leads with a slim margin. Although going by the 2016 presidential contest, wherein Wisconsin conducted a statewide recount where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by more than 20,000 votes, few votes were netted out. Former Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tweeted that 20,000 votes would be 'a high hurdle'. "It will not be easy, but few things worth fighting for are,” he wrote. Moreover, in a heated recount controversy, the Republican US Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler called for Raffensperger’s resignation citing no practical or authentic evidence of his “wrongdoing” that botched up the election as per the claims made by the Republicans.
Updated 19:29 IST, November 11th 2020