The Washington Post yesterday released audio files of US President Donald Trump pressuring the Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 more votes for him.
Donald Trump currently has 2,461,842 votes, and Joe Biden has 2,473,633 votes in Georgia.
If the 11,780 votes were to be found, it would give Donald Trump a tally of 2,473,634 votes.
This would be one more than Joe Biden and thus flipping the state’s electoral college votes to Donald Trump.
In excerpts of the phone call, Trump repeatedly claims that there was fraud that happened in Georgia, such as dead people voting, and ballots being shredded.
Trump also threatened legal action against the secretary, saying: “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it.
“That’s a criminal offence.
“You can’t let that happen.
That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer”.
The Secretary of State however, a Republican, held his ground and stood by the fact that the vote tallies for Georgia were correct.
Trump took to Twitter to criticise the Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp and the Secretary of State for Georgia.
He said that the secretary of State had ‘no clue’ and that the Governor was a ‘disgrace to the great people of Georgia’.
This action meant several lawyers concluded that the President either broke or came close to breaking both federal and state law regarding interfering with elections.
At the state level, Georgian law makes it illegal for anyone who “solicits, requests, commands, importunes or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage” with election fraud.
Federal law also states that anyone who “knowingly and wilfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive, defrauds the residents of a state of a fair election and impartially conduced election process” is breaking the law.
However, it is unlikely that Trump will be charged for it.
Even if these votes were to be found, Joe Biden would still win the election.
This is because it would put Joe Biden down to 290 electoral college votes, which is still over the 270 required to win the Presidency.
Georgia is considered a crucial battleground state in US elections as it holds 16 electoral college votes.
In the 2020 election, it went to the Democrat Challenger Joe Biden. The state has been the location of controversy however, recounting the result three separate times.
A Georgian Election official condemned both Trump and the Republican Party last month for stoking violence and not speaking out against it.
President Trump has disputed the results of the November 3 election and has not conceded to Joe Biden.
He has lost several legal challenges to overturn the result and has had the Supreme Court deny hearing two election cases.
Georgia is also the location of two Senate runoff races on Tuesday, which will help determine which party controls the Senate.
On Wednesday January 6, Congress will vote to approve the results of the election.
This process will be highlighted more than usual due to the prominence of fraud allegations in this election.
Several Republicans have already suggested that they will not vote to approve the results.
By Kieran Burt
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.
