State Elections Board Refers Fulton County Voting Issues To Attorney General
In Fulton County, voting issues seem to be a feature, not a bug. Today, the State Elections Board has referred the systemic mishandling of absentee ballot requests during this year’s primary to Attorney General Chris Carr. Noted pointedly in the press release below from Secretary of State Raffensperger, David Worley – a Democrat – made the motion for referral.
From the press release:
(ATLANTA)-After reviewing a series of voter complaints against Fulton County for failing to process and send absentee ballot requests for the June 9 primary, the State Election Board (SEB) today voted unanimously to send the case to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office. Fulton County’s failure to process and mail requested Absentee Ballots resulted in multiple violations of Georgia law [O.C.G.A. 21-2-384(2)], the board determined.
Chief Investigator Frances Watson said the Georgia Secretary of State’s office received 254 complaints from voters who did not receive an absentee ballot. At least 107 of those people did not vote at all in the June 9 election. At least 105 were never entered into the eNet voter registration system — meaning the county never entered the voters’ information for ballot fulfillment. Testimony also revealed there were many more Georgians who didn’t receive a requested absentee ballot, “evidenced in the large numbers that went to the poll and reported not receiving a ballot.”
In making the motion to send the case to the attorney general, Democrat appointee David Worley said “while the COVID phenomenon … was not limited to Fulton … the large extent of problems with the processing of absentee ballot applications were clearly evident in Fulton County, and now that the case is before us, I don’t think we can ignore that. And if one person being denied their right to vote is too many, 250 is certainly too many.”
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the chair of the SEB, said Fulton County must fix these issues before the general election, when record-breaking turnout is expected.
“This is about identifying and addressing the issues we saw in June, so that we don’t see them repeated in Fulton this November,” said Raffensperger. “All of us, on the state level and those doing the hard work at the county level, had to manage through the COVID-19 crisis in June. We will all have to manage through it in November as well. But the volume of Fulton’s issues was unique. As we heard in testimony today, up to 80% of the complaints we received in Georgia were concerning Fulton County.”
Raffensperger added that he hopes Fulton County and the State Election Board will be able to build a positive and productive relationship moving forward, and reach a resolution that will prevent the issues that arose in June from reoccurring in November.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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Is Fulton a Democratic County? Asking honestly here, I don’t know.
Fulton has a long history of making election day a procedural hell for voters and poll workers, so I’m hoping the Election Board’s report will serve as a wake-up for November.
Having said that, “Over 140,000 Fulton voters applied for absentee-by-mail ballots”, about six times from 2018’s general, so 250 complaints is less than one-fifth of a percent. No doubt other voters didn’t get ballots who never got around to complaining, and I agree that one omitted is too many, but .998 + is something, and a solid base to improve on.
https://www.ajc.com/politics/investigation-concludes-fulton-failed-to-send-many-absentee-ballots/KS5XW5BP5RCHVHGSSWP7TWM26I/
There needs to be criminal prosecution of those who deleted hundreds, or thousands, or potentially tens of thousands of absentee ballot applications. There are likely civil remedies, as well, for violations of federal voting rights.
And there may need to be a criminal investigation of the staff person at the Fulton County Election Board who is responsible for apparently deleting the back-up of the absentee ballot applications and, if confirmed, there needs to be prosecution of that, as well.
About 80% of all election problems in the primary that were reported to the state were in Fulton County. It’s time to fix that.
This state has played footsies with negligence, and I believe criminal negligence, at Fulton County Election Board for decades. It’s time for action to make these incompetent managers retire, be fired, or fix the problems.
There are 250+ complaints named in this article alone. There are thousands more who haven’t even been reported yet — including my own.
Georgia Public Broadcasting news report: GPB.org
“The board voted unanimously to turn the case over to the attorney general’s office for more investigation into whether Fulton officials violated state laws governing timely processing of absentee ballots.
State investigators received 254 complaints from Fulton voters who said they did not get an absentee ballot after they requested them. At least 107 responded that they did not ultimately vote in the election.”
https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/08/27/state-investigation-finds-failures-in-fulton-countys-absentee-process