Georgia election officials denounce "fake" voter fraud claims
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during an Oct. 30 press conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
Georgia's Republican officials spoke out against voter mis- and disinformation ahead of Tuesday's election during a "60 Minutes" program that aired on CBS Sunday evening.
Why it matters: Former President Trump has made baseless claims of cheating and election fraud this year, as he did during the 2020 and 2016 election campaigns. Georgia official Gabriel Sterling said he told doubters, "Voter suppression's fake. Voter fraud is fake. It's used to raise money and get you angry."
Zoom in: Sterling who, along with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), stood up to Trump in 2020 in the face of violent threats from the former president's supporters, told CBS' Scott Pelley he knows the 2024 election "will be the safest and most secure election in history" because it's the most scrutinized.
- "The reason we have ballots is to avoid bullets," said Sterling, the GOP chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state. "And if you say, 'Ballots don't matter anymore,' there's only one logical direction to go."
- Raffensperger recalled on "60 Minutes" that Trump's lawyers said after the 2020 election there were 66,000 underage voters. "There were zero," he said. "Then they said that there were 2,423 non-registered voters. There were zero."
- The Republican official said he spoke out in 2020 because he works for the voters of Georgia and his job is "to run a fair, honest, accurate election."
Zoom in: Trump has raised allegations of cheating during the 2024 election campaign, including in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Between the lines: Extensive research shows instances of voter fraud in the U.S. is "very rare, voter impersonation is virtually nonexistent, and many instances of alleged fraud are, in fact, mistakes by voters or administrators," per the Brennan Center for Justice.
- "It's a federal crime for noncitizens to register or vote in federal elections, and it's a crime under every state's laws. So it should come as no surprise that every legitimate study ever done on the question shows that voting by noncitizens in state and federal elections is vanishingly rare."
The bottom line: Sterling agreed with Pelley that it's inevitable some people will say Tuesday's election is stolen.
- His message to anyone who believes that is: "I'm sorry that your candidate lost. But the rules are the rules. The law is the law. And the count is the count."
Go deeper: GOP secretaries of state swat down election conspiracies while Trump sows doubts
