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'We've never found systemic fraud, not enough to overturn the election': Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger says

He also criticized the state party, saying they didn't turn out enough voters.

'The people of Georgia spoke in this election': Georgia secretary of state

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is interviewed on "This Week."

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Sunday that President Donald Trump lost the state of Georgia.

He defended the integrity of the general election, saying that while they have more than 250 investigations underway, so far, his office has yet to find evidence supporting "systemic fraud" that would change the outcome.

"We've never found systemic fraud – not enough to overturn the election. We have over 250 cases right now … but right now we don't see anything that would overturn, you know, the will of the people here in Georgia," Raffensperger, a Republican, told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos during an interview on "This Week."

"There's no doubt in your mind President Trump lost the state of Georgia, lost the election?" Stephanopoulos pressed.

"Yeah … sad but true. I wish he would have won. I'm a conservative Republican, and I'm disappointed, but those are the results," the secretary said.

The state of Georgia will soon re-certify its election results for the second time, following the third count of the nearly 5 million votes cast in the presidential race. The state has already concluded a hand audit of every single vote cast for president, and despite it reaffirming the results of the first count that President-elect Joe Biden flipped Georgia blue the Trump campaign requested a machine recount of the votes, which they were legally allowed to do since the margin between Trump and Biden was less than 0.5% of all votes cast.

In the weeks since the election, Trump has continued to deny the results of the election, which was on full display at a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, Saturday night for the state's two senators, who are in runoffs.

Trump continued his direct attacks on the secretary and Gov. Brian Kemp, calling for signature matching of absentee ballots to be done again and repeating his false assertions about mass voter fraud and election malfeasance, which state and local officials have repeatedly shot down as being untrue.

Raffensperger and one of his top deputies, Gabriel Sterling, also made direct pleas to the president this past week to stop spreading misinformation and condemn those making violent threats against election workers, which Trump has still not personally done. The president instead doubled down on his focus on and ire towards the Peach State's election, which he lost by more than 10,000 votes.

Raffensperger told "This Week" that his family has received death threats, his wife has received "sexualized text" messages, and the threats have now also been lodged at election workers and members of his office. He said this was "irrational, angry behavior … unpatriotic."

The secretary's criticism wasn't reserved for the president, but also levied at the Georgia Republican Party.

"At the end of the day, we as Republicans didn't turn out enough voters. Our office, as secretary of state, is really just to look at what those votes – totals were, and we report the results. And that's why it gets back to the state party (that) didn't do their job, didn't raise enough money and didn't turn out enough people," Raffensperger said.

Both of the state's senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, are on the ballot again Jan. 5, facing Democratic challengers in runoff elections that will determine which party controls Congress' upper chamber. Republicans have increasingly voiced concerns that rhetoric coming from Trump and his allies could suppress GOP turnout in that election.

Asked by Stephanopoulos if he thinks Republicans questioning the election will make it more difficult for the senators to prevail next month, Raffensperger joined those voicing concerns Sunday.

"These distractions, this disunity does make it more difficult" for Loeffler and Perdue to win, he said.

Both senators called on Raffensperger to resign weeks ago, but he said he is still supporting their campaigns.

"I’m a Republican. I vote for Republicans. So I wish them well," he said.

more https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/weve-found-systemic-fraud-overturn-election-georgia-secretary/story?id=74560956