Election official speaks out after Trump accuses Bibb County of switching 12,000 votes
President Donald Trump accused Bibb County of switching votes in the presidential election during a campaign event for the Senate runoffs in Dalton Monday night.
“There is clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to former Vice President Biden in several counties throughout Georgia,” Trump said.
He listed Bibb County as an example claiming that he had 23,000 votes and Biden had around 17,000 votes at 9:11 p.m. He said the vote count switched a few minutes later, with Biden in the lead with 12,000 additional votes and Trump at 17,000 votes.
Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections Chair Mike Kaplan said President Trump was wrong, and the Board of Elections is upset he would make those claims about Bibb County.
“Mr. Trump is sadly misinformed and must be getting his information and his news from social media, because what he said happened, never happened,” Kaplan said.
Although Kaplan was disappointed Trump felt that way about Bibb, he said votes were never switched in Macon-Bibb County. With poll watchers and media present on Election Night and during the recounts, someone would have noticed a major switch like that if it did occur, he said.
“We’ve done everything we can in this town to make it fair, open. We’ve never tried to hide anything. All of our poll watchers and observers have been treated fairly and kindly, and for him to say that is an assault on the citizens of Bibb County,” Kaplan said.
Trump’s criticism of Bibb County happened only a day after a recording of a conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was released by The Washington Post. During the conversation, Trump asked Raffensperger to find him the nearly 12,000 votes needed to win him the election in Georgia while falsely claiming the election was stolen from him.
Raffensperger responded to the president by saying the data he had was wrong.
“All I know is that we’re going to follow the law, follow the process,” Raffensperger told “Good Morning America.” “Truth matters, and we’ve been fighting these rumors for the last two months.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 10:44 AM.