Georgia voting manager says he now has 'police protection' to guard against threats caused by Trump'

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Georgia voting manager says he now has 'police protection' to guard against threats caused by Trump's election disinformation

Yelena Dzhanova



A Georgia voting manager said he has 'police protection' to guard against any potential threats that he may face as a result of President Donald Trump's misinformation about election fraud in the state.

President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia's 16 electoral college votes in the 2020 presidential election. Immediately after the results of the Georgia election, the Trump campaign requested a recount, which resulted in the state certifying Biden's victory.

Since then, Trump has been railing against Georgia officials and claiming the state practiced and enabled voter fraud.

He made his most recent claims on Saturday night at a Georgia rally.

"You know we won Georgia, just so you understand," he said, using a false statement to rile the crowd.

Moving on, Trump began to push unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud occurring in the state, an allegation that local and state voting officials have vehemently denied.

"We're fighting very hard for this state, when you look at all of the corruption and all of the problems that have to do with this election," Trump said.

Georgia is one of the states that Trump filed lawsuits against alleging election fraud. Of the dozens of lawsuits he filed, he's so far won none of them.

His rhetoric about the unfounded allegations has emboldened his supporters to harass individuals involved with voting this year in the state, according to Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager under the Georgia secretary of state.

In a Sunday interview with NBC News's "Meet the Press," Sterling said the "disinformation" Trump is trying to leverage is "stoking anger and fear among his supporters."

Sterling said he heard from a voting project manager in Colorado on Tuesday who said one of his contractors is facing harassment on social media.

"I got a call from the project manager from Dominion Voting Systems out of Colorado, who was telling me in a very audibly shaken voice that one of their contractors had received some threats in Gwinnett County," Sterling said on "Meet the Press."

In late November, Dominion Voting tore into one of Trump's lawsuits claiming "massive election fraud" and called the allegations "baseless," "senseless," and "physically impossible." The company is not a defendant, but it's mentioned in multiple instances throughout the 104-page Georgia lawsuit.

"This is just a young cat. He took a job a few weeks ago," Sterling added about the contractor. Sterling searched his name on Twitter and found harassing messages targeted at both the contractor and his family.

The contractor has "a very unique name so they tracked down his family and started harassing them. And it said his name, you have committed treason, may god have mercy on your soul," he said. "And at that point, I just said I'm done."

Sterling said he has a police car situated outside his home in case any threats to his or his family's safety arise. He also said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is receiving police protection because "his wife received sexual, violent threats on her personal cellphone."

"The situation is getting much worse," he said. "It's undermining democracy. We've got to get to a point where responsible people act responsibly."

When reached for comment, the Trump campaign said its focus is on ensuring all votes were counted legally.

"No one should engage in threats or violence, and if that has happened, we condemn that fully," said Trump 2020 Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh.