Trump claims voter fraud in Georgia Senate runoffs, Republican candidate calls for ‘transparency’

After multiple failed attempts to overturn the US presidential election results, President Donald Trump has now started suggesting voter fraud in Georgia Senate runoffs, which will decide the fate of president-elect Joe Biden’s agenda. In a series of tweets, Trump claimed that the officials are “setting up” a “voter dump” against Republican candidates to get ahead in the final round of counting.

“Just happened to have found another 4000 ballots from Fulton County. Here we go!” tweeted the outgoing US president, which was immediately flagged by the micro-blogging platform as “disputed”.

Trump also amplified White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s misleading claim and implicit suggestion of electoral fraud. McEnancy asked why had the election officials stopped the vote count in Chatham County, a Democratic stronghold. “Why are they stopping the vote count in Democrat Chatham county, Georgia? This sounds familiar!” tweeted McEnancy, which was retweeted by the US president and duly flagged by Twitter.

According to a CNN report, the counting of votes in Chatham County wasn’t just stopped for the night, rather the officials have counted everything they had. Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems implementation manager, told the US media network that they are left with the absentee ballots that came in on Tuesday via mail and dropbox, adding that such ballots are coming from largely Democratic counties.

Also Read | Democrats win one Georgia runoff election, poised to pick the second

Meanwhile, Democrat Raphael Warnock has won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs and all eyes are now on the contest between incumbent Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. Amid unsubstantiated voter fraud claims by the US president, Perdue’s campaign has called for “time and transparency to be certain the results are fair and accurate.”

“We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious,” Perdue’s campaign said in a statement early Wednesday.

The final outcome of Georgia Senate runoffs is also set to coincide with the certification of the electoral college and Biden’s victory by the US Congress. In a fresh attempt to thwart the Electoral College vote, Trump has publicly urged vice president Mike Pence to steal the election for him. Taking to Twitter, Trump said that many states want to “decertify the mistake”, suggesting that Pence can send back the certificate to respective state legislatures.

“If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!” he tweeted.

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