Donald Trump requested that 11,000 votes be found during the 2020 election.
Posted by Deadline: White House, Checked Updated
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- 2 contradict1 support1 context
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Deadline: White HouseOct 20, 2026
The sources confirm that Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a January 2, 2021 call to "find" 11,780 votes, which was after the November 2020 election.
What was said
… that if you are an election official and you don't heed what Donald Trump wants, if you don't do his bidding, if you instead follow state law and enfranchise voters, you may wind up on the wrong side of a criminal investigation. Or, to put it another way, if Donald Trump comes this time and asks you to find 11,000 votes, you damn well better find them, or else you may just find yourself being criminally prosecuted. Well, what's bananas is, do you know who really tried to, um, let me just quote this fella accurately, uh, hunt down and prosecute? …
Deadline: White House · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. The sources place the request after the 2020 election, in a January 2021 post-election call, rather than during the election itself; the passage also frames the 11,000-vote request as a hypothetical future event rather than a past one.[1][2]
Supports. AP reported that Trump pressed Georgia's Republican secretary of state to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's win, according to a recording of the call.[1]
Supports. CBS reported that on January 2, 2021, Trump asked Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes for him, and the LA Times quoted Trump saying "I need 11,000 votes, give me a break."[2][3]
Context. Raffensperger and Georgia officials rejected the claims and said there were no votes to find, which places the request in the context of disputed post-election pressure.[3][4]
Sources
4 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 tier 2, 1 not rated, 1 tier 1
- 1GA election officials reject Trump call to ‘find’ more votesapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 2Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State who Trump asked to ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 3Raffensperger details Trump's election demandslatimes.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 4Raffensperger calls Trump 'just plain wrong' after election callbbc.com · tier 1 · cited for: context
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