Republican election officials in Georgia are countering allegations of “election interference” made by Donald Trump and his supporters, as the former president seeks to cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process in the state.
Gabriel Sterling, the Chief Operating Officer of the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, took to social media on Saturday evening to assert, “To be clear, no election laws were broken in Georgia today,” following the claims from Trump and his allies.
These allegations appear to be part of Trump’s strategy to prepare for a potential challenge to the 2024 election results should he lose. Despite the assurances from the Secretary of State’s office, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Georgia GOP filed a federal lawsuit on Sunday against local election officials over the collection of in-person ballots that weekend. A state court had already dismissed a case aimed at shutting down those collection sites.
Trump’s scrutiny isn’t limited to Georgia; he has also raised concerns about fraud in Pennsylvania, hinting that he might again declare the election rigged.
The ongoing tensions between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, have roots in the last election when Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Raffensperger refused to comply, even as Trump and his team attempted to contest the election results. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump and his associates with election interference, though the case has faced delays following revelations about Willis’s personal relationship with a lead prosecutor.
Trump’s campaign labeled the recent actions as a “clear, partisan violation of the law,” asserting that such moves aim to support Democratic efforts in Georgia. “With just two days until our country’s most important election, it is critical for officials to follow the law and run the election in a fair and transparent manner,” the campaign stated.
The pushback from state officials comes after Trump’s campaign, the Georgia GOP, and the RNC accused certain counties of illegally collecting ballots over the weekend. They claimed that facilities in Chatham, Clark, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties were unlawfully serving as drop boxes and that election observers were being denied entry.
In response, Sterling clarified on social media that “no drop boxes were used” for ballot collection. He emphasized that government buildings can legally receive absentee ballots, as confirmed by a judge. He also noted the presence of monitors, observers, and investigators at Fulton locations where ballots were dropped off.
Raffensperger supported this, stating that Fulton County had complied with monitoring requirements, countering claims from local GOP officials regarding the absence of observers. He urged transparency in election processes, given the county’s history of controversies.
The RNC has called for ballots collected over the weekend to be segregated, suggesting they may not be counted. “The ballots received after the deadline must be separated,” the RNC emphasized, claiming that Democrats’ actions undermine transparency and public trust in the electoral system.
Dana Remus, serving as outside counsel for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, dismissed the Trump campaign’s legal maneuvers as “very silly,” asserting that they are merely creating noise in the final stretch of the campaign. “When they bring these cases, we respond, and we’re clearing the record and winning,” she stated.
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