Georgia Judge Gives Green Light for Audit of State’s Absentee Ballots
A lawsuit filed in Fulton County’s Superior Court is paving the way for a fourth audit of votes cast in the state. This latest lawsuit will allow thousands of absentee ballots that were cast in the last presidential election to be reexamined after repeat allegations of voter fraud.
A group of election watchdog groups and independent voters filed suit against county officials in December and argued that officials “violated the state due process clause” and “violated the state equal protection clause” because of the way they ran the presidential election. This lawsuit is one of more than 30 complaints filed against the election proceeding or results in the state. Unlike all suits filed on behalf of the election results, this suit gained some traction with lawmakers and voter groups who allege there was fraudulent activity in Georgia's election. Last Friday, Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero who heard the complaint agreed to have over 140,000 absentee ballots unsealed and audited for election violations. The latest unsealing of ballots nearly half a year after the election results were announced has some officials concerned that the trend of recounting votes to prove voter fraud occurred will continue to flourish despite the many reports which insist the election was a secure one.
This lawsuit has been painted by county and state officials as the latest effort to push against the 2020 election results. After the election, Georgia conducted a hand count audit almost immediately after the state’s election results were in. A third recount of the votes took place by machine after Trump's team requested to have the ballots recounted, a right which they have according to the law.
The plaintiffs argue that this latest attempt at recounting the votes will be done so not for the purpose of contesting the election results, but for the purpose of ensuring rampant voter fraud did not take place. One of the plaintiffs in the case, Garland Favorito who is the co-founder of the group Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia, explains that the previous recounts including the one initiated by the Trump team are not credible. Favorito shared with a local news outlet WSBT-TV, "We've had three—what we feel like are illegitimate—attempts to determine what the election results are and I think we'll actually, this time, find out for sure what's right."
Former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is the chair of a voter registration group, Greater Georgia Action, and she shared in a statement, “Voter confidence in our election system is the bedrock of our republic.” Loeffler adds, “Unfortunately, inconsistencies in Fulton County’s November 2020 absentee ballots cast serious doubt on voters’ faith in our elections.”
County officials have pushed back against the narrative of election fraud within the state, especially when it comes to the absentee ballots. The Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts, a Democrat, expressed his criticism of the audit stating, “It is outrageous that Fulton County continues to be a target of those who cannot accept the results from last year’s election.” Pitts adds, “The votes have been counted multiple times, including a hand recount, and no evidence of fraud has been found. The fact remains that Fulton County safely and securely carried out an election in the midst of a public health crisis.”
Judge Brian Amero explained in his decision that there will be tight measures around the audit of the ballots. His judgment explains that the ballots will be kept secure in order to maintain their integrity and voter security, a nod at the ballot counting procedures in Arizona which many have ridiculed. Judge Amero shot down the plaintiffs' ambitions to have the ballots be released to them so that they can be examined by a private company. The voter watchdog groups who filed the lawsuit explained that they wanted a private company, which would likely be of their choosing, to conduct high-resolution scans of the ballots to authenticate their validity.
Instead, Amero explained that the ballots will remain in the possession of county officials in order to adhere to federal and state law. The plaintiffs will also be responsible for paying for the audit.
While the details of how, when, and where the ballots will be reexamined have yet to be determined, Amero expressed that once they are in the possession of officials, they will be scanned with high-resolution imaging that will then be available for plaintiffs to look at. Through high-resolution scans, the plaintiffs hope to determine whether or not ballots were filled out by hand or whether they were mass-produced using a copy machine as some have alleged. In a statement by Fulton County, officials share that they “will continue to participate in the judicial process that will ultimately validate the integrity of the elections process.”
