Fulton County in Georgia is under scrutiny after it emerged that some early votes from the 2020 election were not signed by poll workers.
Writing on X, various commentators alleged “voting fraud.” The allegations came after a December 9 hearing before the Georgia State Election Board, Ann Brumbaugh, attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections said that some ballots that were counted lacked required poll-worker signatures during the 2020 election.
Vote tabulation tapes are signed to verify the accuracy of votes before they are transported to a central office and used for auditing the ballot.
However, there is no evidence that the ballots were not legitimate because they weren’t signed and some commentators noted that this was a procedural lapse. A recounted hand audit of ballots in Georgia at the time confirmed Joe Biden won the state in 2020.
Newsweek reached out to Fulton County and the Georgia State Election board by email to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump and his allies have consistently claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen and that former President Joe Biden did not win in Georgia and other states. Trump claimed that ballots were duplicated and that were other voter fraud issues in the county.
The comments will breathe new light into these claims and spark further division and mistrust over the validity of elections though there is still no evidence Biden did not win in Georgia in 2020.
What To Know
In the hearing, Brumbaugh said she did “not dispute that the tapes were not signed.”
“It was a violation of the rule,” she said.
She added that since then, “new standard operation procedures” have been put in place and poll workers trained to ensure it does not happen again.
After clips of her comments circulated on social media, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X: “Massive voting fraud uncovered.”
Conservative commentator Gunther Eagleman wrote: “These revelations prove we NEED total, unredacted access NOW.”
Internet personality Mario Nawfal wrote: “This isn’t about Trump. It’s about the fact that Republicans screamed fraud for years and were told to sit down.”
However, Georgia attorney Andrew Fleischman disputed the claim and said: “Every single Fulton County vote was audited.”
It comes after the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit this month against Fulton County, seeking access to voting records from the 2020 presidential election including used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and envelope digital files.
It also comes after a Georgia judge dismissed a case against Trump that had accused him of interfering in the 2020 election in the state.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump’s lead Georgia defense counsel Steve Sadow on Trump’s case being dropped: “The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over. This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice (DOJ), said in a statement about suing states for voter roll access: “States have the statutory duty to preserve and protect their constituents from vote dilution. At this Department of Justice, we will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws. If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”
What Happens Next
In total, the DOJ is suing 18 states over access to voter registration lists, including California, New York, Oregon and Maine.
