GA Sec. Of State Re-Certifies Election, Responds To More Alleged Misinformation
ATLANTA, Ga. (CW69 News at 10) -- Election officials have now re-certified Georgia's election, electors are expected to name Joe Biden as the next president on December 14.
"We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged," said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. "The safe harbor under the United States code to name electors is tomorrow, and then they will meet on December 14th to officially elect the next president."
The announcement comes as President Donald Trump and his supporters continue trying to overturn the outcome, despite multiple failed lawsuits. "All this talk of a stolen election, whether it's Stacy Abrams or the President of the United States is hurting our state," Raffensperger said.
Statewide Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling addressed the latest accusations, including one from a viral video Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and others shared on social media showing an election worker pulling suitcases from under a table at State Farm Arena.
"The secret suitcases with magic ballots were actually ballots that had been packed into those absentee ballot carriers by the workers in plain view of the monitors and the press," Sterling said, explaining workers thought they were about to go home for the night, before they were asked to continue working. "I'm frustrated that we continue to see people who are put in positions of responsibility sending out this information and undermining the electoral system."
Sterling accused the president's attorneys of painting a false narrative, saying they had the same video tape as election officials. "They saw the exact same things the rest of us could see, and they chose to mislead state senators and the public about what was on that video," he said.
He dispelled other rumors, indicating no machines were seized in Ware County, no voting machines flipped any votes, and saying the rumor that two democratic senators flew to Pennsylvania to count ballots is also false.
In looking ahead, election officials said they're ready to focus on growing the economy and ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Sterling gave a morning update on the January 5 runoff election process. "So far, we have 1,037,172 absentee ballot applications that have been put into the voting registration system," he said.
During the process, Sterling says they will also continue investigating any legitimate voter fraud claims related to the November election.
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