Georgia’s primary election hit a few snags Tuesday as compounding complications (coronavirus, new machines, and problem counties) caused long lines and delays. Of course, the liberal media reacted by crying racism and voter suppression. But, in a schooling reminiscent of when he got embarrassed by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, CNN host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo got utterly demolished by Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, who at one point told him that “you're just incorrect.”
Fredo began the segment by lashing out at President Trump for opposing mail-in voting. “Here is the tragedy of the travesty that the President has created on this issue: We have real voter suppression concerns. One is playing out now. Proof,” he opined as he played a video of the long lines. “This is the only type of widespread voter fraud we will ever see.”
After introducing Sterling, “the statewide voting implementation manager,” Cuomo prattled off supposed evidence to suggest his guest and the rest of the conservative election officials were racist (click “expand”):
CUOMO: All right. Let's talk about exactly that. For some context for people, 2018, 87,000 people prevented from voting, a disproportionate number were people of color, young voters, groups typically favoring Democrats. Georgia has closed five percent of polling places since the Supreme Court invalidated the Voter Rights Act, most of those are in black and brown communities. You get the point.
People are concerned that what they saw today is a reflection of what they've seen before, which is disenfranchisement of minorities who tend to vote Democrat. Your take?
Cuomo’s research team left him ill-prepared for the fact bombs Sterling was about to drop. “Well, the reality of what you're seeing in Georgia today is a function of the COVID situation in large part,” Sterling began. He went on to explain that the state had lost many polling places as locations such as churches and VFW halls opted out of hosting.
Pointing to Fulton County, which “collapsed many of those locations into mega precincts,” Sterling said state election officials told them “this is not a good idea, you need to find other alternative locations,” but they didn’t listen.
And when it came to who made those decisions, Sterling noted: “They are made at the county level and the state has zero ability to tell them not do that.” They also had to roll with the punches and train new poll workers since their average age was 70 and they didn’t want to risk going out.
Sterling upended Fredo’s argument. Cuomo began by bashing Trump’s position on mail-in voting, but his guest countered by noting that Georgia had just launched the state’s largest mail-in voting campaign ever, with over 1.3 million registered voters turning in a ballot before Election Day (click “expand”):
Well, Chris, to be fair, we had to roll out a new voting machine system, we had just started. We had two weeks of early voting and presidential preference primary voting. And when we merged those two together, we launched the largest mail-in program ever in the history of the state of Georgia. Over a million voters taking advantage of it. It’s blown away the record turnouts we’ve seen.
As of today, before we voted today we already had record turnout for a general primary. Never happened before. Over 1,300,000 people. We have three weeks of early voting, including a mandatory Saturday, of 325,000 people took advantage of. That was a record. We anticipate a record turnout today, which is part of the reason we saw long lines. And the main things we saw had nothing to do with equipment, but had to do with poll worker training, because they couldn't do as much of it. And logistical issues with the counties.
He would later note that they had “sent out the absentee ballot to 6.9 million registered voters. The first time ever.”
But Fredo was corned and didn’t want to listen to reason. “Isn't that still on you? I mean, these are your people, this is your planning and, you know, it's an interesting argument you make that you have huge turnout,” he whined about the long lines.
Sterling began to say that Georgia election officials agreed that they needed to ensure more training for poll workers on the new machines, but Cuomo interrupted to fall back to his default cries of racism (click “expand”):
CUOMO: But you had the same problem in 2018.
STERLING: Chris, you're just incorrect. We've never had these machines before, they're brand new.
CUOMO: No, no, no. The machines are new, the problem is not. In 2018, 87,000 people were prevented from voting, a disproportionate number were people of color and young voters. I agree with you that you had anticipation of a turnout. You had to prepare for it, it doesn't seem you did. And it seems convenient, if you're going to be not able to handle the demand, it's nice that you do it in places that tend to vote Democrat.
Sterling then told him off: “In those counties where people tend to vote Democrats, are run by Democrats, and they're the ones that set the elections boards, they’re the ones who hire the staff.”
On top of that, Sterling schooled Cuomo on the fact that Fulton County has had a long history of flouting election rules. “We have been saying for years there's problems in Fulton. Fulton County has paid hundreds of thousands of fines for violating election rules. It has repeatedly, over and over again. You can go back and look.”
Kind of like how Cuomo flouted quarantine rules.
By the end of the interview, Fredo, whose catchphrase is "let's get after it," was running away with his tail between his legs. “All I'm saying is Gabe, look, I’m not looking to ascribe animus, I'm just saying it looks bad.”
But weren’t you just saying that what we witnessed in Georgia was “real voter suppression” and “the only type of widespread voter fraud we will ever see?”
What happened, Fredo? The facts happened. This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo PrimeTime
June 9, 2020
9:29:20 p.m.CHRIS CUOMO: You know, there's no more powerful way to make a point than proof, okay? The President has consistently told you: “mail-in balloting, oh you can't do it, it's rife with fraud.” It's not true. He made it up because he doesn't like it, because he obviously has some personal concerns about too many people have too much access to voting.
(…)
Here is the tragedy of the travesty that the President has created on this issue: We have real voter suppression concerns. One is playing out now. Proof, please, put the picture back up. Nobody needs to look at my nose. This has been going on, Georgia's primary, a mess all day and evening. Most of the problems have been in and around Atlanta. Why? That's what we're going to discuss.
People waited for hours in the middle of a pandemic to vote. God bless them for the fortitude, but why did they have to? Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, extended voting by an hour tonight.
(…)
This is the only type of widespread voter fraud we will ever see. Please understand that, okay? Not here, because you'll hear a lot, doesn't make it true. Just because he says something does not make it true, and more and more often it makes it likely to be false. Forget about all that talk. Okay? Disenfranchisement is the concern. It has always been the concern. That's what we need to talk about tonight.
(…)
Gabriel Sterling is the statewide voting implementation manager for the state of Georgia. Sir thank you for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.
GABRIEL STERLING: Good to be here Chris, to talk about what's happening in Georgia today.
CUOMO: All right. Let's talk about exactly that. For some context for people, 2018, 87,000 people prevented from voting, a disproportionate number were people of color, young voters, groups typically favoring Democrats. Georgia has closed five percent of polling places since the Supreme Court invalidated the Voter Rights Act, most of those are in black and brown communities. You get the point.
People are concerned that what they saw today is a reflection of what they've seen before, which is disenfranchisement of minorities who tend to vote Democrat. Your take?
STERLING: Well, the reality of what you're seeing in Georgia today is a function of the COVID situation in large part. We did loss many polling places because it’s summer time so schools are closed, churches opted out, VFW halls opted out. In Fulton county specifically, they lost 40 locations and collapsed many of those locations into mega precincts, which saw a lot of those amazingly long lines.
We said this is not a good idea. You need to find other alternative locations. And those polling closures and the things your discussing are literally county decisions. They are made at the county level and the state has zero ability to tell them not do that. Although, this secretary of state has introduced a bill that would require, if there are lines of over an hour at any time during the day and you’ve got over 2,000 people registered at a polling place, that you have to split that polling place or supply more machines to do it.
Now, what we saw today too was, as an example. In Fulton County, my home county. At a library, there were 15 machines that were sent there, but the rules of COVID spacing, only allowed four voters at a time into those places. Those are the realities.
Trying to get poll workers trained. Because we lost the -- the majority of our poll workers the average age is 70. So, we lost many of those poll workers. So we recruited – the county’s recruited new poll workers that they had to train during COVID. It's very difficult to do, hands on training with equipment when you can't get more than 10 people in a room. And we’ve been working with counties--
CUOMO: Here's thing, Gabe. I hear you, I hear you, and I wanted to give a chance to give a full throated explanation of it. But plenty of people are holding elections during the pandemic. The office of the secretary of state, in your state, as in most, is responsible for election planning and certification. So, this is your problem, even if it's executed at the county level. And two, lots of states have done it without what we're seeing now on -- in your watch, in your major city.
STERLING: Well, Chris, to be fair, we had to roll out a new voting machine system, we had just started. We had two weeks of early voting and presidential preference primary voting. And when we merged those two together, we launched the largest mail-in program ever in the history of the state of Georgia. Over a million voters taking advantage of it. It’s blown away the record turn outs we’ve seen.
As of today, before we voted today we already had record turnout for a general primary. Never happened before. Over 1,300,000 people. We have three weeks of early voting, including a mandatory Saturday, of 325,000 people took advantage of. That was a record. We anticipate a record turnout today, which is part of the reason we saw long lines. And the main things we saw had nothing to do with equipment, but had to do with poll worker training, because they couldn't do as much of it. And logistical issues with the counties.
We don't load the trucks. So, items were delivered late. Especially in one county that has a history of problems, which is Fulton County itself. We already opened up an investigation because they mishandled absentee ballot applications. We are now expanding that investigation of Fulton and to DeKalb county because pf the way they deployed items today.
In almost every case, when our technicians showed up, it was a two or three-minute fix because the poll workers had not learned what exactly to do with this this equipment. And--
CUOMO: Isn't that still on you? I mean, these are your people, this is your planning and, you know, it's an interesting argument you make that you have huge turnout, Gabe.
STERLING: [Inaudible] We do not deploy poll workers to those locations, we're going to work hand in hand with all of our counties, we’re going to learn through these things. And the main thing we’ve learn – and we all agree – it's going to be training, training, training we're going to be better in August when we have our runoff.
CUOMO: But you had the same problem in 2018.
STERLING: Chris, you're just incorrect. We've never had these machines before, they're brand new.
CUOMO: No, no, no. The machines are new, the problem is not. In 2018, 87,000 people were prevented from voting, a disproportionate number were people of color and young voters. I agree with you that you had anticipation of a turn out. You had to prepare for it, it doesn't seem you did. And it seems convenient, if you're going to be not able to handle the demand, it's nice that you do it in places that tend to vote Democrat.
STERLING: In those counties where people tend to vote Democrats, are run by Democrats and they're the ones that set the elections boards, they’re the ones who hire the staff. We have been saying for years there's problems in Fulton. Fulton County has paid hundreds of thousands of fines for violating election rules. It has repeatedly, over and over again. You can go back and look.
And I’m sorry to say it that way. But we’ve have 159 counties and 150 of them had almost no problems whatsoever. And they all received the same level of training from the secretary of state. We trained the trainer, the counties are in charge of training the poll workers. We're all going to learn from this.
You're right, this morning started out terribly, especially in Fulton County, some location in DeKalb, Fulton, Cobb, and Gwinnett. But for the most part, once we got the issues fixed where the poll workers just didn't know how handle this equipment, the lines started moving. At the same time, when you have 400 people lined up at a polling location and you only allow six at a time in, and you can only scan about – This is the first time we used paper in the state in 20 years. We used to have the electronic machines.
CUOMO: Right, I get it, but a lot of states have made the transition. All I'm saying is Gabe, look, I’m not looking to ascribe animus, I'm just saying it looks bad. And it looks bad over time. So, I'm raising the issues and giving you a chance to respond, because there are a lot of people tonight who may not get to exercise, arguably, the most important right we have. So, I appreciate you answering the questions.
STERLING: Well, that’s the main reason why we sent out the absentee ballot to 6.9 million registered voters. The first time ever. We've done everything we can, and we're going to have record turnout. And you’re right, it does look bad when we started off this morning. But we started addressing the issues as soon as we saw them, and by a little after lunch, nearly every problem was off our board. And we’re trying to make sure that everybody can vote. And we encouraged everybody to vote. Because it’s literally the most important thing you can do in our democracy.
CUOMO: Gabriel Sterling, thank you very much for joining me tonight. Not an easy conversation for you to have. Thank you for having it.
STERLING: Thank you. Good luck tonight.
