Trump asks official to 'find' votes to flip election

US President Donald Trump asked Georgia's election chief to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state. The conversation was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of the election.

Georgia:US President Donald Trump badgered and pleaded with Georgia's election chief to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state, suggesting in a telephone call that the official "find" enough votes to hand Trump the victory.

The conversation on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of the election, which he lost to Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden.

The renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud by the first president to lose reelection in almost 30 years come nearly two weeks before Trump leaves office and two days before twin runoffs in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate.

Trump confirmed in a tweet on Sunday that he had spoken with Georgia's Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, a day earlier.

Audio snippets of the conversation were posted online by The Washington Post.

A recording of the call was later obtained by The Associated Press from a person who was on the call.

The Associated press is choosing to not release the full audio of the call because it's our policy to not amplify misinformation.

Georgia certified election results showing that Biden won the state's November 3 election by 11,779 votes.

In the call to Raffensperger, Trump can be heard saying that he wanted the secretary of state to "find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have", so he could be declared winner.

The White House referred questions to Trump's reelection campaign, which did not respond Sunday to an emailed request for comment.

Raffensperger's office did not respond to a text message seeking comment.

AP