One of Georgia's top election official said on Monday that every vote was counted in the state's Nov. elections, rejecting the baseless conspiracy theories President Donald Trump pushed in a call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger this weekend. The president has desperately been trying to reverse the election results, claiming that the Democrats stole the election from him.
Voting systems implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's office, Gabriel Sterling, pointed out at a news conference that there are respected people in a position of authority who claims that their votes didn't count, adding that it is not true. Trump is heard urging Raffensperger to find votes to reverse the election results in Georgia, which he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
After the audio, which was originally reported by The Washington Post and acquired by CNN surfaced, Raffensperger turned down Trump's demand. During the one-hour phone call on Saturday, Trump criticizes his fellow Republican for not supporting his dubious claims of massive voter fraud and falsely say that he won the election in Georgia.
During the call, Trump said the people of Georgia and the American public are angry, and there's nothing wrong in saying that they "recalculated." Raffensperger responded, saying that Trump's challenge is that he has incorrect data. In another part of the call, Trump presses Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than they have, insisting that they won the state.
Raffensperger told NBC News that he was concerned about talking directly with Trump due to a lawsuit the president is pursuing against the state's governor and secretary. Noting that Trump came up short on the election, Raffensperger said the president is highly unlikely to be re-elected, adding that he isn't pleased with how the results have gone in other states.
Raffensperger told the outlet that he is confident in the result they have in Georgia. He went on to say that the call happened after White House staff insisted on it, noting that he did not personally record the call and didn't know who released it.
He said he is glad the recording of the call was made public after Trump's tweet misrepresented the conversation. Raffensperger said it is not always possible to keep taking shots from people while they keep putting out false information. He said they would respond, sometimes forcefully, with the facts.
On Monday, Sterling debunked the president's false claims of widespread voter fraud, describing them as "provably false." He said they did not find any evidence that supports Trump's claims during their investigations.