Republican Gabriel Sterling, who famously denied claims of Georgia voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, is now running to become the state’s top election official.
Sterling was appointed chief operating officer of the secretary of state office, which oversees elections, by Brad Raffensperger in 2018. In this role, Sterling sparked controversy for overseeing the rollout of Dominion electronic voting systems in 2020.
From 2019 to 2020, Sterling served as Georgia’s Voting System Implementation Manager. He initiated the state’s new paper ballot system and use of Dominion Voting Systems machines, which were accused of playing a key role in alleged election fraud in the state.
A lawsuit filed after the 2020 election results included allegations that Dominion was founded to help facilitate vote-manipulation in Venezuela, and that its software does not allow for audits, opening up the door to great potential for fraud.
The complaint also alleged that Georgia’s election officials, under Raffensperger’s leadership, facilitated “massive voter manipulation by refusing to observe statutory safeguards for absentee ballots,” including by failing to “verify signatures and check security envelopes” and by “barring challengers from observing the count.”
Questions were also raised over suspicious video footage of ballots being counted after hours, revelations about homeless residents being allowed to use the address of an Atlanta charity instead of valid proof of residence, and changes made to the state’s absentee ballot rules without legislative approval.
The initial state presidential election results saw a razor-thin margin between Trump, who had 49.2% of the state’s votes, and Joe Biden, who had 49.5%.
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene complained to Sterling that her ex-husband was told when he arrived at his polling location in 2020 that he had already voted in Georgia, adding that voters “all over the state” said they experienced the same discrepancy.
Sterling explicitly denied the allegations of Dominion machine-enabled voting fraud, stating, “There’s literally zero, and I’m saying this to certain congresspeople in the state, zero evidence of machines flipping votes.”
After announcing his run for secretary of state, Sterling affirmed his confidence in the state’s voting process, telling the Atlanta-Journal-Constitution, “Georgia elections are the safest in the nation and I will fight every day to keep it that way.”
Sterling is competing against fellow Republicans Kelvin King and state Rep. Tim Fleming for chief of elections. King has criticized those who attacked President Donald Trump, in what some say is a thinly veiled attack on Sterling.
“Government employees who attack political candidates or supporters — of either party — will be held accountable and terminated. We’ve seen unprofessional conduct, with press conferences aimed at attacking the president and concerned citizens,” said King upon his campaign launch in July. His wife, Janelle King, is a member of the State Elections Board, which had a few decisions overturned by the state Supreme Court.
Fleming leads a committee studying Georgia’s election system. He co-wrote a letter to Raffensperger requesting that he conduct a trial run of hand-marked paper ballots before the 2026 midterms.Adrian Consonery Jr., who is new to politics, is the only Democrat running for secretary of state so far.
