Petitioners in a lawsuit to inspect Fulton County mail-in absentee ballots from the November 3, 2020 election have added new claims and provided new evidence they say proves the hand recount audit conducted after the election, “was riddled with massive errors and provable fraud.”
At a press conference on Tuesday in Roswell, Georgia, VoterGA and Garland Favorito, organizers of the lawsuit, made the stunning announcement that there was “a whopping 60%” error rate in Fulton County’s hand count audit held on November 14 and 15, 2020.
Most of the new allegations and evidence are based on VoterGA data team analysis of Fulton County’s mail-in ballot images from the November 2020 election, which were only made available after the petitioners won a court order on April 13 and VoterGA lobbying efforts led the Georgia General Assembly to make all images public, according to the voter integrity organization’s press release.
There were several significant findings from VoterGA’s data team in Fulton County for the November 2020 election and the subsequent hand count audit.
Of 1,539 batch files containing 100 mail-in ballots each, 923 – or 60 percent – contained votes incorrectly reported in the official November 3, 2020 results as compared to the reported audit totals.
At least 36 batches representing 4,255 mail-in ballots were redundantly added into the audit results, including extra vote totals of 3,390 for Biden, 865 for Donald Trump and 43 for Jo Jorgensen.
Real America’s Voices correspondent Heather Mullins attended the press conference and told The Georgia Star News, “Evidence presented at today’s press conference suggests a total of 4,255 total extra votes were counted redundantly. After doing the math, Biden’s margin of victory shrinks by 2,525 votes.”
VoterGA maintains, though, that in Fulton County “it is not simply a case of errors,” when it comes to the November 2020 election and audit.
“The VoterGA team found 7 falsified audit tally sheets containing fabricated vote totals for their respective batches,” the voter integrity group declared in their announcement.
In total, the seven batches of ballot images had votes that totaled 705, of which 554 were for Biden, 140 for Trump and 11 for Jorgensen.
However, tally sheets falsified in the audit showed a higher vote total and had 100 percent of the votes going to Biden – 850 for Biden, 0 for Trump and 0 for Jorgensen, resulting in a near 300 vote swing for Biden.
Fulton County also failed to include tally sheets for 100,000 ballots – of which more than 50,000 were for mail-in ballots – in the results originally published by the office of the Secretary of State for the full hand count audit.
The tally sheets remained missing, according to VoterGA, until late February when Fulton County supplemented their original audit results.
VoterGA also found over 200 Fulton County mail-in ballot images containing votes not included in the hand count audit results.
Furthermore, the petitioners contend that Fulton County did not provide absentee ballot drop box transfer forms for at least three of the 41 voting days, even though election officials are obligated to do so in response to their open records request.
Fulton County’s missing forms are still needed for VoterGA to evaluate the critical chain of custody for about 5,000 absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes.
The Star News has reported extensively on this topic, having submitted open records requests to Fulton County election officials in December 2020 in order to obtain all of the transfer forms for absentee ballots deposited into Fulton County’s 37 drop boxes during the 41-day election period.
While Georgia Public Broadcasting News reported in mid-June that they received all but eight of the drop box transfer forms, as of July 13, Fulton County has still failed to produce at least 385 forms representing 18,901 absentee ballots directly to The Star News in response to repeated open records requests over the past more than seven months.
Back on November 19, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that the statewide Risk Limiting Audit of Georgia’s presidential election, which was required by state law, “upheld and reaffirmed” the original outcome from the machine tally.
At the time, Raffensperger said that the audit led to counties catching mistakes in their original count by not uploading all memory cards. The secretary of state’s office has not addressed on the website any of the recent findings identified by VoterGA.
In May, Raffensperger said that Georgia’s new election law gives his office more tools to address Fulton County election mismanagement.
VoterGA’s newly-identified anomalies have been included in the Fulton County ballot inspection lawsuit via a third amendment to the petition for declaratory and injunctive relief, as additional counts of how the Equal Protection and Due Process Constitutional rights of Georgia voters were violated.
The full text of the VoterGA press release dated July 13, 2021, can be read here:
Press Release Contact: Garland Favorito
July 13, 2021
www.VoterGA.org (404) 664-4044
New Evidence Reveals GA Audit Fraud and Massive Errors
ATLANTA GA – Petitioners in a lawsuit organized by VoterGA to inspect Fulton County ballots have added stunning claims in their amended complaint and provided new evidence from public records that show Fulton County’s hand count audit of the November 3rd 2020 election was riddled with massive errors and provable fraud.
Most new allegations and evidence are based on a VoterGA data team’s analysis of Fulton’s November 2020 mail-in ballot images made public after petitioners won a court order on April 13th and VoterGA lobbying efforts led the Georgia General Assembly to make all images public under Open Records Requests beginning March 25th .
The team’s analysis revealed that 923 of 1539 mail-in ballot batch files contained votes incorrectly reported in Fulton’s official November 3rd 2020 results. These inaccuracies are due to discrepancies in votes for Donald Trump, Joe Biden and total votes cast compared to their reported audit totals for respective batches. Thus, the error reporting rate in Fulton’s hand count audit is a whopping 60%.
One type of error discovered involved duplicate results reporting for batches of ballots. The team found at least 36 batches of mail-in ballots with 4,255 total extra votes were redundantly added into Fulton Co. audit results for the November election. These illicit votes include 3,390 extra votes for Joe Biden, 865 extra votes for Donald Trump and 43 extra votes for Jo Jorgensen.
But it is not simply a case of errors. The VoterGA team found 7 falsified audit tally sheets containing fabricated vote totals for their respective batches. For example, a batch containing 59 actual ballot images for Joe Biden, 42 for Donald Trump and 0 for Jo Jorgensen was reported as 100 for Biden and 0 for Trump. The seven batches of ballot images with 554 votes for Joe Biden, 140 votes for Donald Trump and 11 votes for Jo Jorgensen had tally sheets in the audit falsified to show 850 votes for Biden, 0 votes for Trump and 0 votes for Jorgensen.
Fulton Co. failed to include over 100,000 tally sheets, including more than 50,000 from mail-in ballots, when the results were originally published for the full hand count audit conducted by the office of the Secretary of State for the November 3rd 2020 election. Those tally sheets remained missing until late February when the county supplemented their original audit results.
Petitioners contend that Fulton County did not provide drop box transfer forms for at least three pickup days when obligated to do so via an Open Records Request. Those missing forms are still needed to provide chain of custody proof for about 5,000 ballots.
The VoterGA data team also found over 200 Fulton County mail-in ballot images containing votes not included in the hand count audit results for the November election.
All these anomalies are now included in the Fulton County ballot inspection lawsuit as additional counts of how the Equal Protection and Due Process Constitutional rights of Georgia voters were violated.
The video of the July 13 press conference, during which Garland Favorito of VoterGA explains the current status of the lawsuit, the new findings that strengthen the lawsuit, five reasons the hand count audit was flawed, as well as independent analyst David Cross providing details on his findings of a 60 percent error rate in the hand count audit, can be viewed here.
– – –
Laura Baigert is a senior reporter at The Star News Network, where she covers stories for The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks