by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A former lieutenant of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is now running for the top job.
Gabriel Sterling filed paperwork to raise money for the Republican nomination Tuesday and indicated Thursday that he will, indeed, campaign for the office.
“Georgia elections are the safest in the nation and I will fight everyday to keep it that way,” Sterling said in a text message responding to a query about his plans.
Sterling signed his message as a “conservative Republican.”
His loyalties and those of his former boss were called to question by supporters of President Donald Trump after Trump lost his 2020 election in Georgia against Democrat Joe Biden. Trump famously called on Raffensperger to find enough votes to reverse his loss in the Peach State.
Raffensperger defended the accuracy of the results and dismissed claims of fraud. Sterling, who was the agency’s chief operating officer, backed up his boss, blasting such allegations, as “insanities, fever dreams [and] made-up Internet cabal.”
Sterling will be competing in the Republican primary next year against Kelvin King, who vowed to support the hand counting of ballots. Georgia voters currently enter their choice by touchscreen and receive a printout of the result. A machine then reads the result embedded in a QR code on the paper. Starting next summer, that QR code will go away under a new state law, and the secretary of state will have to devise a new method of voting.
King is married to State Election Board member Janelle King, who asserted at a legislative hearing last week that technical problems with the current ballot scanners caused flawed counts. (Raffensperger’s office responded that the machines were used improperly, attributing one erroneous outcome to human error.)
Janelle King was appointed to the board by House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington.
Burns also appointed another candidate to an election-related role.
Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, a former chief of staff for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, is also raising money for a secretary of state run. Burns appointed Fleming to lead a blue ribbon committee investigating election procedures and security. It has been traveling the state to hear from officials and the public, giving Fleming airtime.
A Democrat, Adrian Consonery, Jr., has also filed paperwork to raise campaign funds for a run at becoming the next secretary of state.
