In some versions of a story published Oct. 13, 2025, The Associated Press erroneously reported that charges were dropped against former DeKalb County, Georgia, Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones following a rape allegation.

Gabriel Sterling, known for defending Georgia's 2020 election results, is running for the state's secretary of state.

The Georgia secretary of state's office said it acted quickly earlier this month to thwart an attempt to flood the state’s absentee voter portal in an apparent attempt to crash the site.

Republican officials who believe in the legitimacy of elections have formed a group that's pushing back on the election lies and conspiracy theories that have persuaded a large share of their party that elections can't be trusted.

Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeated Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler has not yet conceded, but the Associated Press and major television networks declared Warnock the winner early Wednesday morning. At midday Wednesday, unofficial results showed Warnock was more than 44,000 votes ahead of Loeffler. Democrats will now have a majority in the Senate the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency. It shatters the previous 2.1 million set in 2008 in the runoff between Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.

ATLANTA – Voting precincts in Georgia closed Tuesday at 7 p.m. in what’s been the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history. After the polls closed, the state began counting vote-by-mail ballots in addition to the votes cast Tuesday. More than 3 million Georgians had voted early, either by mail or during in-person voting in December. If Democrats win both seats, they will have control of the Senate, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will become the tiebreaking vote. The early turnout was expected to benefit Democrats, as it helped Biden in November become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since 1992.

Georgia's two Senate runoff elections on Tuesday will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. ___HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GEORGIA SENATE ELECTIONSGeorgia’s two Senate runoff elections Tuesday will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Democrats need to win both of Georgia’s Senate runoff elections to claim the Senate majority. Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections on Tuesday will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Georgians are voting on two Senate runoff elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate.

According to a tweet from the governor, Trump also asked him to order an audit of absentee ballots from the presidential race in his state. Trump on Sunday tweeted more unproved allegations that Georgia’s election was fraudulent, blaming Kemp and Duncan for inaction. Signature verification & call a Special Session. State lawmakers could call a special session on their own, but only if 60% of members in both houses of the General Assembly demanded a session in writing. “I don’t believe that there’s the will in the General Assembly for a special session,” Raffensperger said.

Confusion arose when election workers thought they were done for the night, but then were instructed to continue scanning ballots. Other election workers started to pack up, Sterling told The Associated Press in an interview. They pulled the same boxes of ballots back out, and resumed scanning, Sterling said. “These aren’t magical ballots,” Sterling told the AP. The president’s team is “intentionally misleading the public about what happened at State Farm Arena on election night,” Sterling tweeted Friday.

In this Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020 photo, Gabriel Sterling a top Georgia elections official stands during a news conference, in Atlanta. On Tuesday Dec. 1, 2020, Sterling called on President Donald Trump to condemn supporters who have threatened violence against election officials. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)ATLANTA – A top Georgia elections official on Tuesday lashed out angrily at the rhetoric surrounding the election and the threats of violence that have resulted, specifically calling on President Donald Trump to rein in his supporters. “Rigged Election,” Trump tweeted. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler both issued statements Tuesday evening condemning violence but also criticizing election officials, according to news outlets.

This has to stop,” Sterling said. “…Death threats, physical threats, intimidation is too much. “Be the bigger man here and step in and tell your supporters to stop,” Sterling said. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler both issued statements Tuesday evening condemning violence but also criticizing election officials, according to news outlets. “Like many officials, as someone who has been the subject of threats, of course Senator Loeffler condemns violence of any kind.

ATLANTA – After the Trump campaign requested a recount of the presidential ballots in Georgia, county election workers have just over a week to complete the new tally, a top elections official said Monday. Under state law, a candidate can request a recount when the margin is less than 0.5%. The Trump campaign on Saturday sent a formal request for a recount to the secretary of state’s office. After the initial count following Election Day, Raffensperger selected the presidential race for an audit required by state law. A state election board rule mandates that the recount requested by the Trump campaign be done by machine.

Election officials in Georgia's 159 counties are undertaking a hand tally of the presidential race that stems from an audit required by state law. The complete hand recount stemmed from an audit required by a new state law and wasn’t in response to any suspected problems with the state’s results or an official recount request. The secretary of state’s office has until Friday at 5 p.m. to certify the election results. While not formally a recount under the letter of state law, the hand tally conducted to complete the audit was effectively a recount in practice. Votes that hadn’t previously been counted were found in several counties during the audit, which required recertification of the election results in those counties.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As Georgia counties face a midnight deadline to finish their hand counts of ballots cast in the presidential race, a fourth Georgia County discovered votes not previously included in the state’s initial vote count. On Wednesday, Trump wrote on Twitter: “The Georgia recount is a joke and is being done UNDER PROTEST. U.S. Rep Doug Collins, who is running Trump’s Georgia recount effort, has traded barbs on social media with the secretary of state. The actual number of rejected ballots was about 350% higher, but that matched the overall increase in absentee ballots, the release says. Two years ago, 454 absentee ballots were rejected out of 284,393.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he chose the presidential race because of its significance and tight margin. Because of the close results, he said, a full hand recount would be needed to complete the audit. The actual number of rejected ballots was about 350% higher, but that matched the overall increase in absentee ballots, the release says. Two years ago, 454 absentee ballots were rejected out of 284,393. The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the presidential race in Georgia, where Biden led Trump by 0.3 percentage points.

ATLANTA – A second Georgia county has uncovered a trove of votes not previously included in election results, but the additional votes won’t change the overall outcome of the presidential race, the secretary of state’s office said Tuesday. Election officials on Monday said Floyd County, in north Georgia, had found more than 2,500 ballots that hadn’t been previously scanned. Both counties will have to recertify their results, and the margin between Trump and Biden will be about 13,000 votes when those previously uncounted votes are accounted for, Sterling said. The audit was done on a random sample of voting machines from Cobb, Douglas, Floyd, Morgan, Paulding and Spalding counties. The equipment tested included the touchscreen voting machines, precinct scanners and absentee ballot scanners.

ATLANTA – A hand tally of the presidential race in Georgia has turned up more than 2,500 votes in one county that weren’t previously counted, but election officials said Monday that isn’t expected to alter the overall outcome of the race. County election board Chairman Tom Rees said it appears the roughly 2,500 ballots were cast during in-person early voting but election officials weren’t sure how they were missed. But the county had the paper ballots and caught the problem during the hand tally, he said. County election officials were instructed to start the count by 9 a.m. last Friday and to finish it by 11:59 p.m. this Wednesday. Raffensperger acknowledged last week that the hand tally would be a “heavy lift” for the counties.

ATLANTA – Masked election workers in teams of two began counting ballots Friday in counties across Georgia, a hand tally of the presidential race that stems from an audit required by a new state law. Across the state, audit teams worked with batches of paper ballots, dividing them into piles for each candidate, before counting each pile by hand. Bipartisan panels were on hand to review certain ballots, including those where the auditors couldn't agree on the voter’s intent and those with write-in candidates. But critics have accused him of caving to Trump after the president's campaign and state Republicans requested a hand recount. Critics have also argued that a full hand recount was not intended under Georgia's audit requirement and imposes an unnecessarily heavy and expensive burden on county election officials.

An audit of one race is required before election results are certified by the state, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday that he had selected the presidential race. For the audit, county election staffers will work with the paper ballots in batches, dividing them into piles for each candidate. Then they will count each pile by hand, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. There is no mandatory recount law in Georgia, but state law provides that option to a trailing candidate if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. Brad Raffensperger was going to get tested and plans to self-quarantine as a precaution even if his test is negative, Fuchs said.

ATLANTA – As Georgia counties prepare for a hand tally of the presidential race, the state's top elections official planned to quarantine after his wife tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said Thursday. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s wife, Tricia, tested positive on Thursday, the deputy secretary of state, Jordan Fuchs, told The Associated Press. An audit of one race is required by law but it's up to the secretary of state to choose the race. Sterling emphatically denied that the selection of the presidential race and subsequent decision to do a full hand count was the result of pressure from the president. Doing a hand count of the nearly 5 million votes cast in Georgia during the Nov. 3 election is a massive task.

The state’s voters are facing two key deadlines: the cure ballot deadline and an absentee ballot deadline for military and citizens living overseas. Voters in the peach state can cure absentee and provisional ballots until the end of the day. Georgia law says voters with cure ballot issues can be contacted by email or phone call. Meanwhile, 8,899 absentee ballots from military and overseas voters have not yet been returned to election office as of yesterday morning. Gabriel Sterling, who oversees the state’s electronic voting system, said it’s federal law that ballots which meet those requirements are counted.

ATLANTA – Democrat Joe Biden took a narrow lead over President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Georgia early Friday morning. State officials couldn’t immediately provide the number of uncured absentee ballots. Provisional lists are kept at the county level, and there are thousands outstanding statewide that county officials will decide on whether to count by Friday. Donald Trump Jr. spoke Thursday evening at an event in Atlanta, along with several Georgia elected officials and decried the process. Meanwhile, outside the State Farm Arena where the final Georgia votes are being counted, we have a growing crowd.

Meanwhile, outside the State Farm Arena where the final Georgia votes are being counted, we have a growing crowd. At stake in Georgia are 16 electoral votes. The lawsuit alleges that a Republican observer watched a poll worker take unprocessed absentee ballots from a back room and mix them into processed absentee ballots waiting to be tabulated. In Georgia, ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to count. In the race to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, Democrat Joe Biden currently has 264 while Trump has 214.

Early voting ended Tuesday, so Zeta hasn’t disrupted any voting so far. Early voting ended Tuesday, so Zeta hasn’t disrupted any voting so far. State officials weren’t sure how many of the 336 early voting locations statewide were closed or delayed in opening. ___6:55 a.m.Officials in Georgia say high winds from Tropical Storm Zeta have caused a second death in the South. ___4:00 a.m.A tropical storm warning is in effect in Atlanta as Tropical Storm Zeta makes its way quickly toward the northeast.