The State Election Board is considering an allegation Tuesday that Fulton County double-counted over 3,000 ballots during a recount of the 2020 presidential election.
The outcome of the state investigation will be revealed during the board’s meeting, and then it is expected to decide whether there’s probable cause that the county violated state election laws. The board has the power to impose fines, issue a reprimand and refer the allegation to the attorney general’s office.
The case is highly anticipated by Republicans who distrust the results of the election that Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden by 11,779 votes in Georgia. Three vote counts — two by machine and one by hand — showed similar results.
The second machine count, the official recount, is the one in question.
During the recount, Trump gained 939 net votes against Biden in Fulton County, according to official results.
Allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election have never been proven, but investigations have found mistakes in Fulton County and elsewhere. The State Election Board reprimanded Fulton in February for initially failing to count 1,326 votes during the 2022 primary, an error that was corrected before results were finalized.
The investigation that will be discussed Tuesday came in response to conservatives who alleged that Fulton counted 3,125 duplicate ballots during the recount, added 16,000 votes to the count shortly before certification, and couldn’t provide digital pictures for nearly 18,000 ballots.
“That election should have never been certified without some type of a more proper investigation,” said Joe Rossi, a Houston County voter whose complaint launched the state investigation.
Fulton County officials said in a statement Tuesday the result of election wasn’t in doubt and many of the claims in Rossi’s complaint won’t be substantiated.
“Fulton County’s performance during the 2020 elections has been exhaustively scrutinized but the results, confirmed by three different counts, have not changed. Nor has there been any evidence of fraud or malfeasance,” said the statement from county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt. “Since the 2020 election, Fulton County has hired a new director, implemented numerous procedural updates and invested in a new elections headquarters. It has conducted six elections and independent monitors have noted improvement.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has repeatedly said the outcome of the 2020 election was correct even though his party’s candidate lost.
“There is nowhere close to sufficient evidence to put in doubt the results of the presidential contest in Georgia,” Raffensperger wrote in a 2021 letter to Congress. “There will end up being a small amount of illegal votes (there always is in any election because federal and state law err on the side of letting people vote and punishing them after the fact), but nowhere near the amount that would put the result of the presidential election in question.”
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