Georgia Official on Recount Efforts: “We Are Going To Find That People Did Illegally Vote; That’s Going to Happen” Every Election Is Imperfect

ATLANTA, GA – Georgia’s voting system implementation manager Gabriel Sterling held a press conference Monday on upcoming recount efforts in light of the close race in the state between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Currently, according to the AP, Biden leads in Georgia with 49.5 percent of the votes – in contrast to Trump’s 49.3 – with 99 percent of polling places reporting; however, the margins of Biden’s lead are thin enough that a recount will most likely take place, especially if the Trump campaign demands it.

At Monday’s press conference, Sterling stated that elections are “imperfect” and that he expects recounts to uncover illegal votes. However, he also stated that he expects the results of the recount will ultimately not uncover such conduct in sufficient quantity as to affect the results of the election.

“Let me be perfectly clear on one point- we are going to find that people did illegally vote. That’s going to happen. There are going to be double-voters, there will be people who did not have the qualifications to register to vote in this state. But is it 10,353 [votes]? Unlikely,” Sterling said. “Every election is imperfect, but when the margins are this tight, every little thing matters. We know that the ballots that were there were counted properly and correctly. We’re going to have an audit to prove it, and it looks like the President will ask for a recount to reaffirm that.”

Sterling laid out the state’s plans for the recount, stating that officials need to make sure that the absentee ballot process is “as tight as can be” so that any illegal and/or double voting can be stopped, both now and in the future.

Up for grabs in Georgia are 16 electoral votes, which if won by Trump, would not be enough to overtake Biden’s winning lead of 290 unless Biden losses other states. The threshold for winning the presidential election is 270 electoral votes, which Biden has already past as projected by many major news outlets; Trump currently has only 214, although he has insisted that Biden’s lead is the result of mass voter fraud, something that Sterling seemed to take exception to.

“What I don’t like is people out there trying to undermine this system that was put together so hard by the secretary’s office and county elections directors,” he said.