Fact Check: Election Video Does NOT Show Worker 'Manipulating' Data In Gwinnett County, Georgia
Dec 1, 2020 by: Dana Ford
Does an election video show a worker "manipulating" data in Gwinnett County, Georgia? No, that's not true: The video shows a person moving what appears to be a USB thumb drive from one computer to another and looking at the screen. The technician was transferring a report so he could read it, according to Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting system implementation manager. He strongly denied the implication that the worker did anything wrong or illegal and expressed concern that the false allegations against the tech could lead to violence against him.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on December 1, 2020. The post, which included the two-minute video, read:
Watch a Dominion Representative (Xavier Khouri) at Gwinnett County Election Central, responsible for tabulating ballots and certifying results, download data to a USB from the Election Management Server, plug it into a laptop, manipulate the data, then palm the USB.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Dec 2 00:57:08 2020 UTC)
The post clearly implied that the worker in the video was up to no good, as did the off-camera narration by what sounds like a man and a woman.
Sterling addressed that claim during a press conference at the state Capitol on December 1, 2020. He said:
A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out, saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS [election management system] to a county computer so he could read it.
Sterling said that he spoke with representatives of Dominion Voting Systems, who described the worker as "one of the better ones they got." About the contractor, Sterling said:
His family is getting harassed now. There's a noose out there with his name on it. It's just not right.
Later, Sterling added:
This kid took a job. He just took a job, and it's just wrong. I can't begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian -- Republican and Democrat alike -- should have that same level of anger.
You can watch the start of Sterling's impassioned press conference here:
Separately, Dominion spokesperson Michael Steel spoke to allegations of voter fraud during a Fox News interview published on November 22, 2020. Here's the relevant part from that report:
When asked if a poll worker could use a USB thumb drive to add votes for a candidate, Steel said that the vote tabulators do not have such access. He also said they are not connected to the internet.
'It's not physically possible to do what they're describing,' he reiterated.