WARE COUNTY, Ga. — More than a month after the November presidential election, Georgia election officials will re-certify ballots Monday after three recounts. At the same time, state officials are trying to fight against disinformation concerning the election.
Ware County is one of the counties caught in the net of false claims of a stolen election.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump retweeted a post that said a voting algorithm in one tabulator flipped Trump votes to Joe Biden. The claim states Dominion voting systems switched 37 votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
Carols Nelson, the Ware County Supervisor of Elections, told First Coast News said the claim is false, and it was a human error in tabulating absentee ballots, which was corrected.
“It’s been kind of disappointing because it’s the furthest thing from the truth,” Nelson said. “The system worked as it was intended to work because we noticed an error. You know, we updated the numbers, you know, the state mandated us to do the, the audit, and we did an audit. And it showed that Mr. Trump received 37 votes additional."
Nelson saw the first tweet on Thursday night, which spread like wildfire. It started from one political activist, which was shared by Congressman Jody Hice before President Trump retweeted the claim.
“There are no machines missing and Ware County, there’s no federal police in Ware County seizing machines," Nelson said.
Georgia’s Secretary of State official Gabriel Sterling also dismissed the claims in a press conference on Monday.
“Not true, did not happen,” Sterling said. “There was a written report from an activist that says the hand count was 37 off, it was. He says the only reason it could be off is an algorithm in the machines, which is ridiculous."
Sterling also said it was irresponsible that elected officials were sharing the tweet.
Nelson said despite the misinformation, he commends his poll workers for their hard work and hopes they do not let the accusations get to them.
“They're doing a tremendous job," Nelson said. "And I'm afraid this type of social media lie is going to, it's going to really hurt us going forward, not just us but across the state."