Election Official 'Wanted to Scream' When He Heard Trump Call

Raffensperger's office debunks fraud claims
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 4, 2021 5:01 PM CST
Georgia Election Official: Trump Claims Are Like Groundhog Day
In this Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, file photo, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference in Atlanta.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

A top election official in Georgia says hearing President Trump rehash election fraud claims was like Groundhog Day. At a news conference called by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office Monday, a clearly exasperated Gabriel Sterling listed the claims Trump made in his Saturday call to Raffensperger and explained how the conspiracy theories had been repeatedly debunked, the New York Times reports. "This is all easily, provably false, yet the president persists, and by doing so undermines Georgians’ faith in the election system," said Sterling, the state's voting systems manager. He said he "wanted to scream" when he heard the call, in which Trump pressured Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to reverse his loss in the state.

Sterling explained that contrary to Trump's claims, the state hadn't found evidence that anybody under 18 or not registered to vote cast ballots in Georgia, or that ballot scanning machines had been hacked. "It's very hard to hack a thing without modems," he said. He accused Trump's legal team of deliberately misrepresenting a video showing vote-counting in Fulton County, USA Today reports. "They watched the entire tape, and then ... intentionally misled the state Senate, the voters and the people of the United States about this," Sterling said. He urged Georgians to vote in Tuesday's Senate runoff elections, reports 11 Alive. "Do not self suppress your own vote," he said. 'Don’t let anybody steal your vote that way." (Last month, Sterling warned that "someone's going to get killed" if Trump doesn't stop inciting his supporters.)

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