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WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta by WSBTV.com News Staff
ATLANTA — Fulton County absentee ballots are set to undergo another review after a Henry County judge ruled Friday that a group challenging the county’s handling of ballots can move forward in gathering evidence.
This stems from a lawsuit filed on Christmas by a number of citizens challenging the chain of custody, error rates in ballot scanning and other alleged mismanagement in Fulton County.
None of the claims have ever advanced in court and the judge’s ruling is considered a form of discovery in the case.
Fulton County will retain custody of the ballots during the process as required by law.
After multiple recounts and audits in Georgia tied to the presidential election, this is not a bill the taxpayers will front.
A review of roughly 145,000 ballots cannot change the certified election results but plaintiffs say it will prove a point they’ve been trying to make about how Fulton County mishandled elements of the process, like ballot chain of custody and legitimacy of an audit process.
“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,” said Garland Favorito, the plaintiff in the case.
This ruling marks the first advancement of this type of evidence in any case challenging similar claims throughout Georgia after dozens of Republican Party-led challenges failed to move through state and federal courts last year.
The plaintiffs told Channel 2 investigative reporter Nicole Carr that they don’t consider this an election challenge.
“What this case is, is about equal protection and all the voters’ rights in Georgia, because if counterfeit ballots were introduced into the count, they diluted the votes,” Favorito said.
“Obviously I was just stunned to think that it has gotten this far. It’s a circus that just keeps on going,” said Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts.
Pitts pointed right back to the multiple recounts.
“It gets to be a little ridiculous what’s happening with this. Sometimes in politics, sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. In this case, the other side lost,” Pitts said.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the receiving end of calls from former President Donald Trump pressuring him to overturn election results, issued a statement Friday saying he’s always pushed for Georgians to use the legal system to address these concerns, noting a history of election mismanagement in Fulton County.
Amid those concerns are that the state had a court-appointed monitor who outlined his observations to the board of elections earlier this year.
As for what’s next, how this will be carried out and how long it will take, those are things the court will determine at a later date.
