Georgia election officials straining under 'sheer flood of disinformation' as runoffs approach: report

On Monday, POLITICO profiled several Georgia election officials who warned that the combined weight of GOP conspiracy theories and the COVID-19 pandemic is stretching the system to the breaking point — with the pivotal Senate runoff elections fast approaching.

"The pandemic has forced temporary closures in some election offices, and all officials can do is hope election week doesn't bring more at exactly the wrong time. The state's early voting and vote-by-mail programs have increased turnout but stretched resources and become a bitter partisan flashpoint," reported Zach Montellaro. "All the while, stressed and fatigued election workers want to prevent reporting of the Senate vote counts from devolving into the mess that followed November's vote, when President Donald Trump and allies spread unfounded claims about machines switching votes (Georgia uses paper ballots), the state's voter signature verification process and other issues that fueled Trump's overall claim that he was cheated."

Acting Liberty County elections supervisor Ronda Walthour complained that in November, poll watchers believed they could "walk around and do whatever they wanted to do" contrary to state guidelines which lay out very specific duties, and added she worries this could happen again.

Georgia's voting system manager Gabriel Sterling, a lifelong Republican who gained national attention for condemning Trump's election conspiracy theories, shared the worry. "The sheer flood of disinformation has undermined people's faith," he told POLITICO. "At the end of the day, what that means is you don't trust your neighbor who's running the election ... And that's really weighing on a lot of them."

Trump and his supporters have raged against the results in Georgia, where President-elect Joe Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes, as the upcoming runoffs will decide control of the Senate. The president and most of his allies have endorsed incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, but some pro-Trump elements, like activist attorney Lin Wood, have called on GOP voters to boycott the election in protest of imaginary voter fraud.