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‘It’s a lie’: Georgia election official forcefully pushes back on false claims of voting machine fraud

Megan Varner/Getty Images

(GEORGIA) — With early voting underway in the key battleground state of Georgia, a top election official in the state forcefully pushed back Wednesday on false claims of voting machine fraud — a debunked conspiracy theory that proliferated after the 2020 presidential election and has now been revived by some prominent Republican figures.

“[There is] zero evidence of a machine flipping an individual’s vote,” said Gabriel Sterling, a top official on the Georgia secretary of state’s office. “That claim was a lie in 2020 and it’s a lie now.”

Sterling, in his comments, called out “certain congresspeople” — appearing to reference Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently pushed an unsubstantiated allegation that a Georgia resident’s early vote had been switched by a voting machine.

Greene, in an interview and social media post, shared an unidentified Whitfield County voter’s claim that a voting machine had printed their ballot with a different selection than the one they had made on the machine — a claim that local officials said was simply a case of human error.

“Humans make mistakes. They’re called mistakes for a reason,” Sterling wrote in a post on X. “This issue is human/user error, always will be. Whitfield Co. handled it & voter voted.”

In her tweet about the alleged incident, Greene told her followers to “please double check your printed ballot” before turning it in, and noted that “we vote on Dominion voting machines” — a reference to the voting machine company that was the target of numerous false conspiracy theories in 2020.

Greene pushed the same claims in an interview last week with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, according to a clip posted online, claiming the machine “kept on switching the votes” of that voter.

“It sounds similar to what we heard in 2020,” Greene said of the incident, which occurred in her district, again noting Georgia’s use of Dominion machines.

X owner Elon Musk — who, like Greene, is a supporter of former President Donald Trump — made similar conspiracy theory claims while speaking at a town hall in Pennsylvania last week.

Dominion, in the wake of the 2020 election, filed a series of defamation lawsuits after it became the center of a false conspiracy theory that voting machines had rigged the election in favor of Joe Biden. Last year the company settled its landmark defamation suit against Fox News for a $787 million. The other suits are still ongoing.

In a statement, Dominion pushed back on Greene’s new claim.

“The false claim that voting machines can switch votes has been repeatedly debunked,” a Dominion spokesperson said. “As both state and local election authorities have confirmed, the issue in Whitfield County was due to voter error. The county provided the voter with an opportunity to mark and print a new ballot with their correct choices and the issue was quickly resolved.”

In a press release, the Whitfield County Board of Elections said there was no issue with the voting machine, and that this was “the only incident among over 6,000 ballots cast.”

“If we had reason to suspect that the machine was in error, we would have immediately taken the machine out of service,” the statement said. “No machines have been taken out of service.”

The statement noted that Georgia law allows voters to void their printed ballot “if they make the wrong selection on the ballot marking device.”

Greene, responding to a separate Facebook post by the election board, thanked the poll workers for “resolving the issues” and defended their work, writing that it is “not their fault.”

“They don’t make the Georgia state election laws and they are just doing their jobs,” Greene said of the poll workers.

Speaking at the press conference on Wednesday, Sterling said the “main situation” they have encountered includes “elderly people whose hands shake and they probably hit the wrong button slightly and they didn’t review their ballot properly before they printed it.”

“Anyone claiming machines are flipping votes are lying or don’t research,” Sterling wrote in a post on X last week.

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Entertainment

‘Cruel Intentions’ series features new chapter for the cult classic: Watch trailer

Prime Video

Cruel Intentions, the cult classic film, is getting a new spin.

The trailer for the upcoming series, which is a new adaptation of the popular 1999 film, was released Thursday.

Like the film, the series packs a lot of drama and scandal and follows a similar plotline.

According to a press release for the series adaptation, the show “follows the elite students of Manchester College, a Washington, D.C.-adjacent university, where reputation means everything, fraternities and sororities are the gold standard, and two ruthless step-siblings, Caroline Merteuil and Lucien Belmont, will do anything to stay on top of the cutthroat social hierarchy.”

“After a brutal hazing incident threatens the entire Greek Life system, they’ll do whatever is necessary to preserve their power and reputation – even if that means seducing Annie Grover, the daughter of the Vice President of the United States,” the synopsis continues.

“Hearts will be broken, loyalties will be tested, and secrets will be revealed in this modern-day royal court that is Manchester College.”

The series stars a new group of actors, including Sarah Catherine Hook as Caroline Merteuil, Zac Burgess as Lucien Belmont, Savannah Lee Smith as Annie Grover and Sara Silva as Cece Carroway.

The 1999 Cruel Intentions film was based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos‘ novel Les Liaisons Dangereuse, and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair.

Cruel Intentions will arrive on Nov. 21 on Prime Video.

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Entertainment

Mobile phone manufacturer melds with Venom with slick new ‘alien’ case

HMD

Timed to the release of Venom: The Last Dance, cellphone company Human Mobile Devices has melded with the titular alien symbiote seen in the hit franchise. 

Calling its new mobile device, Fusion, the world’s first “symbiotic smartphone,” HMD has created a glass case for it that contains a crawling, oozing Venom-like black liquid that squiggles and dances under the surface.

In reality, it’s not an alien, it’s a very expensive magnetic substance known as a ferrofluid, which is controlled by 160 electromagnetic arrays.

If that sounds like something you’d be afraid of dropping though your butterfingers, you’d be right — but you needn’t worry. While the Fusion phone is now available for preorder, complete with Venom alerts and other themed sound effects, there are only three of the cases in the world and they’re not available for purchase. 

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Entertainment

Ted Danson apologizes to Kelsey Grammer over rift during ‘Cheers’ years

NBC/Getty Images FILE

Ted Danson is making amends with Kelsey Grammer several years after a dispute while the pair acted on Cheers together.

Grammer appeared on Danson and Woody Harrelson‘s SiriusXM podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name on Wednesday, where he reunited with his former co-stars.

“I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you, during the Cheers years,” Danson told Grammer, who seemed to recall the moment.

“I have a memory of getting angry at you once,” Danson continued. “I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer.”

“I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you,” Danson said. “No, I don’t feel like. I apologize to you and me that I sat back.”

After reminiscing about their time together, Grammer responded kindly, saying, “My love for you has always been as easy as the day, you know, as easy as the sunrise, so, whatever.”

Cheers ran from 1982 to 1993 and followed the story of the goings-on of a Boston bar. Along with Danson, Grammer and Harrelson, the cast included Shelley Long, Kirstie Alley, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt.

After his time on Cheers, where he starred as Frasier Crane, Grammer starred in the Emmy-winning spin-off Frasier, where he reprised his beloved role from 1993 to 2004. The show was revived in 2023.

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Entertainment

Watch trailer for SZA’s acting debut, ‘One of Them Days,’ with Keke Palmer

Photo by: Rosalind OConnor/NBC via Getty Images

SZA and Keke Palmer are best friends and roommates in the trailer for their buddy comedy, One of Them Days, arriving in theaters Jan. 24.

The film captures them as their respective characters Dreux and Alyssa as they go to extremes to make back the rent money Alyssa’s boyfriend has spent and avoid getting evicted. Some of the ways, as shown in their trailer, include donating blood and applying for a loan with their very low credit scores.

A production from Issa Rae, Palmer and their respective production companies, Hoorae and Big Boss, One of Them Days marks SZA’s acting debut and the first feature directorial for Lawrence Lamont, according to Variety. Syreeta Singleton wrote the script, with Lil Rel Howery, Janelle James, Katt Williams, Gabrielle Dennis, DomiNque Perry and more appearing as co-stars. 

Other producers include Singleton, Deniese Davis for ColorCreative, Charles D. King for Macro Film Studios, James Lopez, Poppy Hanks, Hoorae’s Sara Diya Rastogi and Palmer’s mother, Sharon.

The idea for the film came from Sony Pictures and Color Creatives CoCre lab for up-and-coming screenwriters, Variety reports. 

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Business

Striking Boeing workers rejected a new contract. Here’s what happens next

JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images

(SEATTLE) — Boeing machinists overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal this week, opting to extend a weekslong strike and send negotiators back to the bargaining table.

Sixty-four percent of workers voted against the new contract, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington, Oregon and California.

The outcome follows the resounding defeat of a previous proposal last month, which drew rebuke from more than 90% of union members.

The consecutive “no” votes set the stage for a standoff between Boeing and its workers that will strain the finances of both sides over the coming days and weeks, experts told ABC News. That financial pressure will push the dispute toward resolution but workers appear unlikely to budge without major concessions, they added.

“The union has sent a very clear message to Boeing that it will take significantly more to get a settlement,” Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who focuses on labor history, told ABC News.

The proposed contract would have delivered a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the contract, upping the 25% cumulative raise provided in a previous offer overwhelmingly rejected by workers in a vote last month. Workers had initially sought a 40% cumulative pay increase.

The proposal also called for hiking Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it declined to fulfill workers’ call for a reinstatement of the company’s defined pension. The contract would have included a $7,000 ratification bonus for each worker, as well as a performance bonus that Boeing had sought to jettison.

But union leaders said the concessions offered in the proposal were not enough to meet the demands of rank-and-file union members.

“This contract struggle began over ten years ago when the company overreached and created a wound that may never heal for many members,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Seattle, in a statement after the vote. “I don’t have to tell you all how challenging it has been for our membership through the pandemic, the crashes, massive inflation, and the need to address the losses stemming from the 2014 contract.”

Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Experts who spoke to ABC News forecasted a willingness on the part of Boeing to reenter talks and even revisit key parts of the offer.

Hours before workers cast ballots on Wednesday, Boeing released an earnings report showing the company had lost a staggering $6.1 billion over the most recent quarter, even though most of that period took place before the strike began.

The strike is expected to deepen that financial hole. A 50-day work stoppage would cost Boeing $5.5 billion, investment bank TD Cowen said in a report reviewed by ABC News at the outset of the dispute. So far, the strike has lasted 41 days.

“This rejection adds further uncertainty, costs, and recovery delays,” Bank of America Global Research said in a note to clients on Thursday. “We anticipate further concessions of wages will be required for a deal to pass.”

Financial stress will mount for workers as well, experts said.

Union members have received $250 per week from a strike fund, beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. That compensation marks a major pay cut for many of the employees.

“When strikes go longer than five or six weeks, the financial pressures really start to work on the union rank and file,” Robert Forrant, a professor of U.S. history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, told ABC News.

While union members remain widely opposed to the latest contract offer, it drew greater support than the first one. That incremental progress may prompt Boeing to continue the strategy of upping worker pay while standing firm in its refusal to reinstate a defined pension, Ryan Stygar, a labor lawyer at San Diego, California-based Centurion Trial Attorneys, told ABC News.

Workers lost a traditional pension plan in a contract ratified by the union in 2014. The union’s demand for reinstatement of the pension may appeal more to longtime employees who feel they’ve lost retirement benefits than younger ones who’ve joined the company since its shift to a 401(k), Stygar said.

“Boeing’s strategy will be to try to exploit that generational divide,” Stygar said, noting that increased pay and a larger ratification bonus may entice younger workers to support a future proposal even if it omits pension reinstatement.

“As the strike goes on and Boeing’s losses accumulate, I think we will see more aggressive negotiation,” Stygar added, saying the standoff could stretch on for another two to four weeks.

“But I don’t have a crystal ball,” Stygar said.

ABC News’ Jack Moore and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.

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Health

Bird flu cases rise to 31 in US, still no evidence of person-to-person spread: CDC

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The number of confirmed bird flu cases has risen in the U.S. to 31, federal health officials said on Thursday.

Washington health officials reported four presumptive positive bird flu cases over the weekend. Since then, two of the four cases have been confirmed, according to Dr. Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The confirmed and presumptive cases all worked with infected poultry at a commercial egg farm. All had mild symptoms and were given antiviral medication.

“These numbers of confirmed and presumptive cases will certainly shift as more cases are potentially identified in Washington state and then confirmed at the CDC,” Shah said during a press conference on Thursday.

Additionally, the number of cases in California rose to 15, which is the highest number in a single state so far.

The CDC also said there is no evidence that human-to-human transmission is occurring, sharing the results of an investigation that occurred after a Missouri case of bird flu was confirmed through routine influenza surveillance. Investigators found a household contact who had similar symptoms.

They also investigated the hospital where the bird flu patient was hospitalized, and they found that 112 health care workers had interacted with this patient, six of whom reported experiencing respiratory symptoms. Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, confirmed the workers were not positive for bird flu.

Health officials’ investigation suggest the Missouri index patient and the household contact were both exposed to the same source, but further testing revealed the household contact did not meet criteria for a confirmed case.

The CDC said the risk to the general public is still low, and there is no evidence that the virus has mutated to better infect individuals.

Additionally, the CDC confirmed that laboratory company Quest Diagnostics will have a bird flu test soon available with a prescription from a provider for clinical purposes. Being prescribed the test would require being at risk for bird flu and experiencing symptoms of the virus.

Timeline of the bird flu outbreak

The outbreak began in early March when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a bird flu strain that had sickened millions of birds across the U.S was identified in several mammals this year. Later, health officials said they were investigating the illness among dairy cows, but assured there was no risk to the commercial milk supply.

The following month, the CDC said a human case of bird flu was identified in Texas and linked to cattle.

Since then, cases have been confirmed in California, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri and Washington. All the cases were among people who came into contact with sick dairy cows or infected poultry and all patients recovered with antivirals.

In late April, reports emerged that bird flu fragments had been found in samples of pasteurized milk. However, the fragments are inactive remnants of the virus and cannot cause infection.

Federal agencies maintain the U.S. commercial milk supply remains safe because milk is pasteurized and dairy farmers are required to dispose of any milk from sick cows, so it does not enter the supply.

In May, the CDC said in a summary that it is preparing for the “possibility of increased risk to human health” from bird flu as part of the federal government’s preparedness efforts, including filling doses of bird flu vaccine into vials to shore up the national stockpile.

Earlier this month, federal health officials announced they are providing $72 million to vaccine manufacturers to help ensure currently available bird flu vaccines are ready-to-use, if needed.

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National

Ballots damaged after USPS mailbox lit on fire in Phoenix: Police

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

(PHOENIX) — A number of ballots were damaged after a United States Post Office collection mailbox was lit on fire in Phoenix, police said.

An unknown individual lit a fire inside a drive-up collection mailbox at a USPS station early Thursday morning, according to the Phoenix Police Department, which said it responded to the scene at 1:20 a.m.

The Phoenix Fire Department was able to open the mailbox and extinguish the fire and the Postal Inspector took possession of the damaged ballots and miscellaneous mail, police said.

Phoenix police initially said that approximately 20 electoral ballots were damaged, though the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office later said it believes the fire only destroyed five ballots while warning that the final figure could still change.

The Phoenix Fire Investigations Task Force — which includes police detectives and fire investigators — is working with U.S. Postal Inspectors on the investigation, police said.

“I’m deeply troubled by the arson attack on a USPS collection box in Phoenix,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said in a statement. “This deliberate act of vandalism undermines the integrity of our democratic process.”

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said in a statement Thursday that officials are “waiting for details from law enforcement” regarding the incident.

Voters who used that mailbox in the last 36 hours can check the status of their ballots here, with an update on successful delivery usually reflected within 72 hours, he said.

The last day for registered voters to request an early ballot for the election in the battleground state is Friday.

“If a voter believes they were impacted by this incident they can learn more about how to make that request at Request.Maricopa.Vote,” Richer said.

Unlike USPS mailboxes, county ballot drop boxes across Arizona have fire suppression equipment, according to Fontes.

“One of the things that we have done in my office, for the drop boxes across the counties, is make sure that they have fire suppression equipment inside of those drop boxes,” Fontes said during a Zoom call with election officials on Thursday. “Unfortunately, the United States Postal Service doesn’t have that.”

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National

Harris, Obama to campaign together for 1st time at star-studded Georgia rally

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

(ATLANTA) — Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign with former President Barack Obama for the first time Thursday night in must-win Georgia at a star-studded rally near Atlanta to kick off her “When We Vote We Win” concert series to turn out voters in the election’s closing stretch.

Bruce Springsteen, whose music has peppered many Democratic presidential candidates’ set lists, is set to perform at the get-out-the-vote concert, with stars with Georgia ties joining Harris as well, including Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry and Mix Master David, according to the campaign.

A senior campaign official said they view these large events as ways to draw in large crowds of voters and to encourage them to cast their ballots early, and to sign up to volunteer for phone banking and door-knocking shifts.

Harris is set to appear with former first lady Michelle Obama in Michigan on Saturday, campaign officials said.

The Obamas endorsed Harris in July and both spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August.

As of Monday, more than 1.5 million Georgians voted early, surpassing the similar first eight days of early voting in 2022, 2020 and 2018, according to the office of the Georgia Secretary of State.

Georgia is a prime target for the Harris campaign as they look to hold on to a state President Joe Biden won by only 11,779 votes. And it’s bound to be close again. Former President Donald Trump is currently leading Harris in Georgia by 1.5%, according to 538’s polling average.

In the final days of the race, Harris’ team has enlisted celebrities to help share her message and get voters out during early voting periods across the country. On Saturday, Harris was joined by Lizzo in Detroit and Usher in Atlanta, while on Tuesday, Eminem introduced Obama at a Detroit rally.

Also, megastar Beyoncé is set to join the vice president at a rally in the singer’s hometown of Houston on Friday.

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Entertainment

Original ‘SNL’ star Laraine Newman on hosting Thursday’s Sentinel Awards, looking back at ‘SNL’

Photo: Rob Lewine

On Thursday evening at the Norman Lear Center in Los Angeles, a collection of television shows will be hailed for their ability to “inform, educate and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives.”

Original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman will host the Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society’s Sentinel Awards show.

Honored this year will be ABC’s Abbott Elementary and Grey’s Anatomy; HBO’s The Morning Show and Hacks; Fox’s The Simpsons; Apple TV+’s Expats and The Big Cigar; Prime Video’s Gen V; FX’s Feud; AMC’s Dark Winds; and NBC’s Lopez Vs. Lopez.

“I love the idea of shows that deal with the conversation of the most pressing issues that we’re dealing with in our culture,” Newman tells ABC Audio. “And all of these shows present it in a way that is the most palatable way imaginable, which is comedy, which is also exactly what Norman Lear did.”

The performer is also celebrating dual 50th anniversaries this year: The Groundlings comedy troupe in which she was an original member and Saturday Night Live, which had its first show on Oct. 11, 1975. 

Newman was on the show until 1980’s season. She said it took some time to realize SNL‘s significance: “I think subsequent years, when it was clear that it was going to be an institution and that each year, with each successive cast … it always moved the tone and voice and style of comedy forward.”

The show’s first-ever episode is the basis of Jason Reitman‘s film Saturday Night, for which she was extensively interviewed. Emily Fairn plays Newman. “I loved the movie,” Newman gushes, calling it “incredibly entertaining and exciting.”  

The movie plays out in real time, ending with Cory Michael Smith, playing Chevy Chase, saying, “Live from New York: It’s Saturday Night!” — which Newman said brought her to tears.

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