Georgia announced this week it is investigating whether Fulton County properly monitored absentee ballots returned in drop boxes during the 2020 election.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has repeatedly denied that vote fraud affected Georgia’s election, said the investigation is necessary because Fulton County’s elections leadership “failed the voters of Fulton County and the voters of Georgia,” forcing “new leadership to step up and take charge.”
Specifically, Fulton County failed to produce all ballot drop box transfer documents, which is required by state law, according to Raffensperger.
New revelations that Fulton County is unable to produce all ballot drop box transfer documents will be investigated thoroughly, as we have with other counties that failed to follow Georgia rules and regulations regarding drop boxes. This cannot continue.
— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) June 14, 2021
The Georgia Election Board last year allowed voters to return their absentee ballots by submitting them in drop boxes.
The county was then required to collect ballots from each box at least once every 24 hours and sign a transfer form upon removing the ballots.
The form had to include the date, time, location and number of ballots.
The state’s investigation will focus only on ballot transfer forms rather than ballots themselves, according to CNN.
Fulton County officials claimed they followed proper state procedure and worked with state officials when necessary.
“Fulton County followed procedures for the collection of absentee ballots from Fulton County drop boxes. We maintain a large quantity of documents and are researching our files from last year. The majority of the ballot transfer forms have already been produced and we are continuing to research a handful,” Regina Waller, Fulton County’s public information manager, said in a statement.
However, a report from the Georgia Star News alleges that 385 ballot drop box transfer forms out of the estimated 1,565 Fulton County reported were missing.
A Fulton County election official even admitted to the outlet that “a few forms are missing” and that “some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced.”
Raffensperger knew about 300,000 ballots were missing chain-of-custody documentation statewide, but certified the Georgia results anyway.
