Did Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia post on Parler that Stacey Abrams must not be allowed to again register hundreds of thousands of Black voters? No, that's not true: A screenshot showing the purported post was not from Loeffler's official or personal Parler account. It was an account created in the previous week, with no followers, and set on private. The account carries the username "@SenatorKellyLoeffler" while Loeffler's account is "@KLoeffler." Her campaign confirmed to Lead Stories she did not post it.
The claim appeared in an tweet (archived here) where it was published on November 13, 2020 with the caption, "Look what Senator Loeffler just posted. #Parler." The fake Loeffler post read:
Here are the #FACTS: Under the watch of Secretary Raffensperger, Stacey Abrams registered hundreds of thousands of black and Democrat voters. We can't let that happen again.That's why my campaign is partnering with local organizations around the state of Georgia to register REPUBLICAN voters. I'm excited to share more details with you soon!
#Election2020
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Fri Nov 13 19:36:54 2020 UTC)
"Yes it's fake," said Stephen Lawson, the communications director for the Loeffler campaign.
Senator Loeffler has also been promoting her authentic Parler account on her other official social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
This fake Parler post is going after Stacey Abrams because she has been lauded by Democrats following the recent election for her highly successful efforts to register Black voters in Georgia and lessen the effects of voter suppression in the state.
The U.S. political world has their eyes on Georgia, and Loeffler is one of the people at the center of it.
This election cycle, Georgia residents were able to vote in two senate races instead of the typical single senate race because one of the races was a special election. There were 21 candidates on the ballot in the special election, one of whom was appointed Senator Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler and Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock were the top two vote-getters in the contest, but neither got over 50% of the vote, meaning that the race will go to a run-off election between the two per Georgia law.
Coincidentally, the regularly scheduled senate election in Georgia also went into a run-off, as none of the candidates got above 50% of the vote either. Both run-off elections will take place on January 5, 2021.
