The case of double-counted ballots in the recount of the 2020 election in Fulton County seemed like it was resolved with a reprimand and a monitoring team.
But now that a new Republican has joined the Georgia Election Board, the GOP-dominated panel is scrutinizing the allegations again because of unanswered questions from members who want a deeper investigation into the heavily Democratic county.
They say the evidence shows that over 3,000 ballots were counted twice, not just scanned twice. They want to know how such a big miscount could happen — even if it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the close race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
While three vote counts found that Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes, Republican skeptics doubt investigators’ conclusion that election workers simply made mistakes during a rushed and disorganized recount. They suspect the miscount was an intentional effort to match the recount numbers with the original tally, an allegation of fraud that’s difficult to prove.
Ahead of the next presidential election in November, Republican distrust of Fulton’s handling of the previous vote count has gained steam during packed election board meetings where crowds cheer whenever the allegations are brought up. The board plans to revisit the case Tuesday after it was supposedly closed in May.
It’s one of the last remaining cases from the 2020 election after many others have been dismissed, including claims of drop box ballot-stuffing, ineligible voters and forged signatures on absentee ballot envelopes.
“Every time we turn something over it gets more and more concerning,” said Joe Rossi, a Houston County voter whose complaint launched the investigation two years ago. “If I were to have a hypothesis, I would say the original count was so messed up and they couldn’t match the original ballots. It’s fraud if they were trying to hit a number.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The double-counted ballots benefited Trump, according to research by Republicans, indicating that there wasn’t a partisan motive by repeatedly counting the same ballots in Fulton, where 73% of voters backed Biden. But they’re seeking to validate suspicions of purposeful wrongdoing that have so far never been proved.
Republican election allegations during the past four years have often focused on Fulton, which includes the city of Atlanta, a Democratic stronghold. Investigations debunked allegations of illegal “ballot suitcases” at State Farm Arena, and two Fulton election workers won big defamation lawsuits against Trump supporters. A performance review confirmed disorganization and mistakes but said the county had made improvements since 2020.
Election monitor Carter Jones said Fulton’s recount was marred by human errors, misplaced ballots and poor record-keeping, but he never witnessed any attempt to alter the count.
“They were barely able to successfully manage the election, much less work in some conspiracy,” said Jones, who was hired by the State Election Board to observe Fulton in 2020. “I saw no intentional malfeasance or malpractice — just run-of-the mill mismanagement. All these failures in process only lend credibility to those who seek to undermine our faith in the election.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Fulton has agreed to hire more monitors for this year’s election, and the 2020 case should be closed, said the county’s attorney, Ann Brumbaugh.
“The recount was conducted in good faith with accurate results. Human error in scanning ballots did not affect the results or the outcome of the election,” Brumbaugh said. “Neither the secretary of state investigation into this case, the Carter Jones monitoring at the time of the recount, and the performance review investigation found any evidence of intentional fraud or malfeasance.”
The secretary of state’s investigation concluded that Fulton likely scanned over 3,000 ballots twice, but the inquiry couldn’t confirm that those ballots were actually double-counted.
Since then, an analysis by Phillip Davis, a conservative computer expert, suggested that the ballots were in fact counted twice.
Davis found that the double-scanned ballots were included in computer files called the “cast vote record,” which tracks how voters voted. The 527,925 votes in Fulton’s “cast vote record” matched the official result, showing that the double-scanned ballots were also double-counted.
Davis, who posts his research online at BallotAssure.com, identified specific double-counted ballots by finding repetitive vote patterns among about 20 races on the ballot, filtered by precinct and ballot type. For absentee ballots, he compared them side by side to confirm their ovals were filled in identically.
In addition, thousands of ballots from the initial count weren’t included in the recount, and Davis also discovered at least 250 likely test ballots inserted in the recount.
The double-counted ballots appear to have been scanned once in one tabulator, then divided up and moved to various other tabulators to be scanned again, Davis said.
“It looks like people were picking through them and removing them, which doesn’t make any sense at all,” said Davis, who runs the pro-Trump @mad_liberals account on X. “I never say the F word (fraud). I just try to give as much information as I can.”
In addition to problems during the recount, Fulton County also double-counted and misallocated votes during a hand-count audit of the 2020 election, according to a previous state investigation. Errors identified by investigators amounted to over 3,000 too many absentee ballots counted for Biden during the audit. The overall audit count added 345 net votes for Trump in Fulton.
The State Election Board’s new majority plans next week to review the double-counting case and decide whether to approve the election monitoring team that Fulton signed off on. The attempt to revive the case comes after Republican House Speaker Jon Burns appointed right-wing media personality Janelle King to replace Republican attorney Ed Lindsey.
“A complete investigation is absolutely necessary to help Fulton County and prevent the recurrence of the same problems from the 2024 election,” Republican State Election Board member Janice Johnston said during a meeting last month. “One might say that this case has been heard and decided, but it has not.”
Johnston didn’t respond to requests for comment, and the secretary of state’s office declined to comment.
Fulton County election results in 2020
Official recount results
Joe Biden — 73%
Donald Trump — 26%
Jo Jorgensen — 1%
Double-scanned ballots
Joe Biden — 56%
Donald Trump — 43%
Jo Jorgensen — 2%
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% because of rounding.
Sources: Secretary of state’s office, Phillip Davis
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