Cobb Elections post-recount meeting Archives

*Gabriel Sterling, a Georgia elections official, lashed out over death threats and other forms of intimidation he said are being aimed at elections workers during the state’s recount.*

Cobb County Government has sent out word that the Cobb Board of Elections is meeting Thursday at 4 p.m. “in anticipation they will have to recertify the results of the November 3^rd election.”

This will be a virtual meeting due to COVID-19 and you can watch on the Cobb Government YouTube Channel.

On Wednesday Cobb Elections staffers were expected to finish a machine recount of the presidential voting.

That work has been taking place at Jim Miller Park, site of a previous hand recount ordered by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Raffensperger gave county elections offices until Wednesday to complete the machine recount.

That process—which is being done on eight scanners in Cobb County—comes at the request of the campaign of President Donald Trump.

He finished 0.2 percent and less than 13,000 votes behind Joe Biden in Georgia after election-night and absentee voting was complete, and after the hand recount.

In Georgia recounts are allowed if a losing candidate comes within 0.5 percent or less.

Nearly 5 million votes for president were cast in Georgia and around 400,000 in Cobb, where Biden won with 56 percent of the vote. Most East Cobb precincts favored Trump.

The recount is finishing up amid what a top Georgia elections official said is intimidation and continuing threats of violence against elections workers from the pro-Trump camp.

Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, said Tuesday he’s among those who’ve received threats, as has Raffensperger and his wife, who’s gotten “sexualized texts” with threatening messages.

“It has all gone too far,” said Sterling, who like Raffensperger is a Republican. “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed.”

In a press conference at the Georgia Capitol, Sterling was enraged describing a threatening Twitter thread aimed at a 20-year-old elections contractor in Gwinnett County that includes “a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches.”

The contractor, Sterling said, “was just trying to do his job” and now there’s a “noose with a name on it . . . This kid just took a job, and it’s just wrong. . . . I cannot begin to explain the level of anger I have.”

Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said he doesn’t know of any threats directed at Cobb Elections, but said the county “did increase police presence at the start of the recounts because of concerns expressed by some elections workers.”

Sterling directed further comments at Trump, who has not conceded to Biden, but who Tweeted derogatory comments over the weekend about Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, whom the president said he was “ashamed” to have endorsed.

“It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you take a position of leadership, show some.”

Both of Georgia’s Republican U.S. Senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, have called on Raffensperger to resign as they face Jan. 5 runoffs that could determine party control of the Senate.

Among those most vocal in claiming election fraud against Trump in Georgia is Atlanta attorney Lin Wood.

Over the last two weeks he’s posted videos on his Twitter feed claiming that ballots in Cobb County were being shredded, which county elections officials have said is not true.

On Wednesday, Wood was appearing at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Alpharetta.

Sterling said while it’s one thing to demand a fair counting of the ballots, the threats have gone too far. Again directing his comments at Trump, he said “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence

“It’s time to look forward,” Sterling said. “There’s not a path. Be the better man here.”

You can watch his full remarks by clicking here.