President Donald Trump on Monday directly questioned whether last week’s midterm elections were honest and blamed voting machines for the results that handed Democrats control of Congress. The statement, posted on Truth Social, came days after a vote-counting error in Georgia left hundreds of Election Day votes out of unofficial results and reversed the apparent outcome of a state House race. The post marks a shift from Trump’s earlier statements about accepting the midterm results.
The Georgia error occurred in Seminole County, in the southwest corner of the state, where officials are investigating how votes from one precinct were omitted from the initial count. The mistake affected House District 154, where Republican Rep. Gerald Greene, a member of the Georgia House since 1983, trailed Democrat Harry James in early unofficial results. The race carries consequences for control of the 180-member chamber, where Democrats had been projected to claim their first majority in more than two decades.
The post addressed the nationwide results rather than the Georgia race alone. “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote. It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter! President DJT,” Trump wrote.
Initial unofficial results showed James ahead by 58 votes, as Trending Politics reported. Post-election checks by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office found that approximately 388 more voters had checked in at Seminole County polling locations than the number of ballots included in the county’s reported totals. Local administrators then determined that results associated with a memory card had not been fully incorporated into the election management system.
The corrected count reversed the race. Greene moved from trailing by 58 votes to leading by approximately 262, with updated unofficial totals listing the incumbent at 10,193 votes and James at 9,932, a 261-vote advantage. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has opened an investigation into the incident. “Our office identified a significant discrepancy, alerted county officials, and uncovered a failure to properly upload election results,” he said.
The investigation will examine whether election workers followed required procedures, how the incomplete upload occurred, and what changes may be necessary to prevent similar problems. Seminole County officials disputed the characterization of a missing memory card, saying the election management computer failed to complete the final processing step for one precinct’s results. The county said the memory cards were accounted for and that ballot scanner records supported the corrected totals.
Watch Trump deliver his first public remarks after the midterm elections here:
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The corrected tally affects the composition of the Georgia House. Democrats were initially projected to secure 93 seats in the chamber; if Greene’s lead holds, that number falls to 92, one more than the 91 seats required for control. Another contest, House District 151, is headed to a December 1st runoff, leaving the chamber’s final composition undetermined.
Greene now stands ahead as Seminole County works to finalize its results ahead of a Monday certification deadline. Trump has since expanded his criticism to early voting totals and the reliability of election equipment nationwide. Georgia authorities are continuing their investigation into the county’s count, and state officials have not alleged deliberate misconduct in the counting failure.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.