Tag: Fulton County

Counties in Ohio, Tennessee, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and More Flooded with Requests for 2020 Election Records as Mandatory Preservation Window Expires

Just the News

With the recent expiration of the federally mandated 2-year window for preservation of 2020 presidential election records, counties across the country have been inundated with public records requests from Americans concerned about election integrity.

During his “Moment of Truth Summit” last month spotlighting 2020 presidential election irregularities, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell exhorted “every single person in the country” to ask for cast vote records from the election from their local county clerk’s office. His website links to the Ordros Analytics, Inc., website, which provides templates of public records requests for cast vote records.

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Court Temporarily Pauses Order Requiring Graham to Testify About 2020 Election in Georgia

Admin

Afederal appeals court temporarily paused an order Sunday that required Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to testify in front of an Atlanta-area grand jury about attempts to illegally influence Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals instructed the district court judge to consider whether the Fulton County grand jury subpoena of Graham should be modified to follow the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, CNN reported.

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Atlanta Mayor Courts Democrats for 2024 DNC Convention

Addison Basurto

City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other Georgia Democrats welcomed DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison in a tour of State Farm Arena on Friday as part of their attempt to win the bid for Georgia’s capital to host the 2024 DNC National Convention.

“This week, Atlanta welcomed Democratic National Convention officials to promote its bid to host the 2024 convention. Our city is clearly the place to be!” The City of Atlanta Government said in a Facebook post on Friday.

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Georgia Cities Push Back Against Fulton County’s Move to Increase Its Share of Sales Tax Revenues by 600 Percent

Addison Basurto

Mayor Andre Dickens released a joint statement on Friday about the opposition the Fulton County Board of Commissioners faces from the 15 cities in the county who oppose the 600 percent increase in the Local Option Sales Tax (L.O.S.T.) proposed by the county. 

“We were pleased to have many of our #GACities leaders in the building for a @FultonInfo Commission meeting regarding LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) funding,” The Georgia Municipal Association said on Friday.

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Burt Jones Challenges Charlie Bailey on Atlanta Crime Spike

Addison Basurto

Republican Lieutenant Gubernatorial Candidate, Burt Jones, challenged his Democrat counterpart, Charlie Bailey, on the rise in crime that Atlanta has seen over the past year. 

“There have been a record 87 homicides so far this year in Atlanta alone. Charlie Bailey would be a rubber stamp for the same policies that caused this. As Lieutenant Governor I’ll FULLY fund our police & help restore law and order to our streets,” the Trump-endorsed Jones said. 

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Atlanta Airport to Receive $40M Federal Grant to Rebuild Concourse

The Center Square

The feds are sending $40 million to help improve a concourse at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration handed down the grant, which is part of more than $968.6 million from the fiscal 2022 Airport Terminal Program for 85 projects nationwide. The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act established the program; it includes $1 billion annually over five years.

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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr Picks Head of State Gang Prosecution Unit

Addison Basurto

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has hired Fulton County Deputy District Attorney, Cara Convery, to head the state’s first Gang Prosecution Unit, per a Wednesday press release from the Office of the Attorney General.

“Cara Convery has established herself as a force in the field of criminal gang prosecution and is a proven leader in Georgia’s legal community,” Carr said.

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Buckhead Public Safety Task Force Issues Final Report, Plan to Halt Crime

Addison Basurto

The Buckhead Public Safety Task Force (Legislative Reference No. 22-R-3001) issued its final report on Friday, with recommendations and a plan to curb crime in the northernmost Atlanta district, wherein the city stated a new police precinct will open up in June.

“Task Force participants were able to hear from a broad spectrum of public safety stakeholders, and I look forward to seeing that expertise translated into a meaningful action plan,” said District 7 Council member Howard Shook.

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Deployment of Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes in Georgia Looks Significantly Different in First Statewide Election Since January 2021

Laura Baigert

With the Georgia General Assembly’s passage of the Election Integrity Act of 2021, otherwise known as SB202, the application of absentee ballot drop boxes looks significant different in the first statewide elections since the January 5, 2021, federal runoff and special election for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats.

The use of drop boxes in the November 2020 presidential and January 2021 elections were enabled by an emergency rule promulgated by the State Election Board in June of 2020. During the November 2020 election, more than 300 absentee ballot drop boxes were deployed throughout the state, funded with $45 million in “Zuck Bucks” that flowed through the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) into Georgia, according to analysis conducted by Capital Research Center.

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More Than 300,000 Votes Unverified in Georgia’s Fulton County in 2020, New Complaint Alleges

Admin

A new complaint to the Georgia State Election Board alleges that more than 300,000 ballots were unreliably recorded on unverified early voting poll closing tapes in Fulton County, Georgia in the 2020 election.

“Fulton County’s Advance Voting poll closing tapes are a fraudulent, un-certified, unsigned, and un-checked false representation of over 311,000 ballots that no court could legally accept,” the complaint alleges.

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Fulton County May Not Have Retained Video Recordings Surveilling More Than 60,000 Absentee Ballots Deposited into Drop Boxes During the November 2020 Election

Laura Baigert
Downtown Atlanta

More than one year after the November 2020 presidential election, Fulton County election officials are offering conflicting accounts about whether video recordings, used to surveil drop boxes where absentee ballots were deposited in the November 2020 presidential election, have been destroyed and whether their actions comply with federal law that requires retention of all election records for 22 months.

The video recordings that may no longer exist would have monitored more than 60,000 absentee ballots being deposited into drop boxes during the majority 35 of the maximum 49 days drop boxes were allowed to have been deployed for the November 2020 presidential election.

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Donald Trump Calls Georgia Investigation Against Him ‘a Witch Hunt’ and ‘Not the American Way’

Chris Butler

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday and Friday issued a pair of statements commenting on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s attempts to investigate him for alleged election misconduct. On Thursday, Trump emailed supporters and said his phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the November 2020 election “was perfect.”

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Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Loses Temper, Directs Rage at Happy Faces Protestors

Chris Butler

Fulton County Commissioners discussed Wednesday whether to extend a contract to the controversial Happy Faces staffing firm, but the discussion irked Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. to such an extent he erupted in a fit of anger. And the longer Arrington spoke the louder and the more antagonized he got — especially when he talked about former President Donald Trump.

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Despite Controversy, Fulton County Commissioners Vote to Continue Contract with Happy Faces

Chris Butler

Fulton County commissioners on Wednesday voted four to three to extend the contract with Happy Faces, a staffing firm said to have ties to Stacey Abrams. Commissioners voted this way, despite several people turning out to protest Happy Faces and any possible contract extension. To express their displeasure with Happy Faces, those audience members held up with signs and buttons with a crossed-out smiley face.

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Attorney General’s Office Indicts Four Fulton County Individuals for Human Trafficking

Cooper Moran
Sign that says "Human trafficking happens here"

The Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, a division within the Georgia Attorney General’s office, indicted four Fulton County individuals on multiple trafficking and cruelty to children charges.

Two individuals, Raphel Olivia Sewer and Jody Netter, were charged with human trafficking and cruelty to children in the first degree. Netter also faces charges of rape and statutory rape.

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Pauses Examination of Fulton County Voting Machines

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee contractor Envoy Sage cannot yet gather data from Fulton County’s election devices according to a Friday order of the state Supreme Court.

That directive stays part of a recent Commonwealth-Court ruling that allows the investigation to proceed. Fulton County’s commissioners have voted to comply with the Senate probe, which is part of a broader examination of the 2020 and 2021 Pennsylvania elections and has been spearheaded by the committee’s Republican Chairman Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro). The Democrat-run Pennsylvania Department of State and the voting machines’ manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems are litigating to stop it.

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‘Mini-Soros’ Behind Bail Calculator That Set Alleged Waukesha Killer Free

Peter D'Abrosca

A far-left philanthropist who has been called “mini-Soros” is allegedly behind bail reform laws across America, including the one in Waukesha County, Wisconsin that freed career criminal Darell Brooks on $1000 bail before he allegedly plowed his SUV into participants of the Waukesha Christmas Parade. 

Brooks was charged with six murders and a litany of other crimes after the attack, which also injured dozens more.

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New David Perdue Lawsuit Cites Election Fraud in Fulton County, Asks to Inspect Absentee Ballots and Envelopes

Chris Butler

Former Republican senator and declared gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and another Georgia resident this week cited fraud in last year’s elections in Fulton County and filed a suit seeking greater election transparency. In their lawsuit, Perdue and Elizabeth Grace Lennon requested access to Fulton County’s absentee ballots and absentee envelopes from last year. They filed the suit in the Superior Court of Fulton County. Lennon said county officials denied her the right to vote.

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Fulton County Elections Director Is Resigning Following Criticism of Chronic Election Failures

Admin

Fulton County, Ga. Registration and Elections Director Richard Barron is stepping down on Dec. 31, according to County Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts.

The Fulton County Election Board had voted in February to fire Barron following scathing criticism of his handling of the 2020 elections, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. However, the county’s commissioners overruled the electoral board’s decision, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.

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Impact of Unsecured Release on Georgia Crime Emphasized at Hearing

Bradley Vasoli

Law-enforcement professionals and judges testified at a Georgia Senate hearing Wednesday largely to consider the impact of pretrial release on violent crime in Atlanta and elsewhere, with particular scrutiny being placed on “signature bonds.”

Jeff Hamling, a representative of the Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen (GAPB), gave the Senate Public Safety Committee a rundown of statistics pertaining to defendants who have been let out of jail under these arrangements. Signature bonds permit prosecutors and judges to release alleged offenders per a signed agreement that the defendants will report promptly for trial. Technically, these bonds have dollar amounts but they do not require defendants to deposit any cash or collateral.

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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice Asks Georgia Legislators to Appoint Special Counsel to Investigate Alleged Fulton County Election Fraud

Chris Butler

U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10) this week called on Georgia legislators to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud during last year’s presidential election in Fulton County. Hice wants to defeat and replace Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Former U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Hice for the position in March.

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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s Claim About No Counterfeit Election Ballots is Not Credible, Garland Favorito Says

Chris Butler

Henry County Superior Court Chief Judge Brian Amero has reportedly done away with a lawsuit that alleged election fraud in Fulton County, Georgia during last year’s presidential election. Members of the nonprofit VoterGA wanted to inspect Fulton County’s mail-in ballots. This, after four senior poll managers signed sworn affidavits indicating they handled counterfeit ballots during the Fulton County hand count audit.

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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Wants Feds to Investigate New Allegations Against Fulton County

Chris Butler

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday called upon members of the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Fulton County elections. This, following recent allegations that Fulton County shredded 300 municipal election-related applications in violation of state law. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has already launched an investigation into the allegations, according to a press release.

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Fulton County School Administrators Fight New TikTok Trend While They Also Want to Keep COVID-19 Mask Mandates

Chris Butler

Fulton County School System officials are currently fighting to keep a COVID-19 mask mandate in place while they’re also trying to clamp down on reported vandalism and violence within the schools. The Atlanta-based Reporter Newspapers said late last week that several parents want a Fulton County judge to issue a temporary restraining order and restrict the schools from imposing a mandatory mask mandate.

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11 Months After 2020 Election Georgia Secretary of State Missing Chain of Custody Documents for 6,995 Absentee Ballots Deposited in Fulton County Drop Boxes

Laura Baigert

A review of transfer forms provided to The Georgia Star News in response to an open records request reveals that the Secretary of State’s office in Georgia is missing chain of custody documents for 6,995 absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes in Fulton County during the November 2020 election.

The number of absentee ballots for which the office has no evidence of the origination of the ballots represents 9 percent of the 79,460 total that Fulton County has recorded as being deposited into drop boxes during the more than month-long early voting and election day period.

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Georgia Public Broadcasting Received Chain of Custody Documents for 4,800 More Drop Box Absentee Ballots from Fulton County Than Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

Laura Baigert
Georgia Public Broadcasting building

A comparison of chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the November 2020 election made available separately by Georgia Public Broadcasting News (GPB News) and the Georgia Secretary of State revealed that GPB News received documentation for 4,800 more drop box absentee ballots from Fulton County than Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The number of absentee ballots documented in the chain of custody documents GPB News has versus those the Secretary of State has represents 6 percent of the total 79,460 Fulton County indicated were deposited into drop boxes during the November 2020 election.

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While DeKalb County Remains Silent, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Tells CNN the County’s Elections Director Leave of Absence Is Related to 2020 Election Job Performance

Laura Baigert

While DeKalb County officials have refused to indicate whether the extended leave of absence of Elections Director Erica Hamilton is job related, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a CNN interview that the leave was an outcome of an investigation related to the violation of absentee ballot chain of custody rules during the November 2020 election.

A joint statement issued by DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith and Vice-Chair Nancy Jester announced that effective September 9, Erica Hamilton was on an extended leave of absence from her role as director of DeKalb County Registration and Elections. 

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Fulton County Election Officials Did Not Properly Handle Finances, Grant Requirements, New Audit Says

Chris Butler
Fulton County Response

Fulton County election officials mismanaged money, mismanaged documents, and failed to comply with various grant requirements, according to a recent audit. The Georgia Star News requested a copy of the audit straight from county officials. The communications staff for the Fulton County Government, though, did not respond before Wednesday’s stated deadline. Staff at the Atlanta-based WSB-TV posted the audit on their website this week.

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Fulton County Voters Urge County Commission Not to Approve Contract with Group Allegedly Tied to Mark Zuckerberg

Chris Butler

Several people on Wednesday urged members of the Fulton County Commission not to approve a nearly $600,000 contract with an Illinois-based group to review and assess the county’s voter registration and elections operations. County commissioners had not approved or rejected the proposed contract with this organization, The Elections Group, as of Wednesday evening.

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Fulton County, Pennsylvania Defends Post-2020 Election Audit and Right to Keep Voting Machines

Bradley Vasoli

Fulton County, Pennsylvania election officials are defending their decision to conduct an audit of the 2020 election in their jurisdiction and their right to continue use of their voting machines.

Attorneys from Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham LLP who are affiliated with an election-integrity nonprofit known as the Amistad Project, will be handling the case for the small county of about 14,500 residents, situated about 90 miles southwest of Harrisburg.

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Vehement Anti-Trump Group Donated $85k to Atlanta Election Judges, Now Auditors Want Some Repaid

Admin

A liberal nonprofit that accused President Donald Trump of unleashing a “surge in white supremacy and hate” donated $85,000 last fall to election administrators in Georgia’s largest county as part of a campaign to turn out black votes in the 2020 election. Auditors now want some of that money returned.

The Fulton County Auditor declared this month that county election officials failed to spend all of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s grant for buying absentee ballot drop boxes and did not comply with one of the grant’s primary requirements to publicly disclose how many ballots were collected in the boxes.

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Fulton County Elections Officials Contradict Georgia Public Broadcasting About the Source and Status of Missing Absentee Ballot Chain of Custody Documents

Laura Baigert
Georgia Public Broadcasting building

In the latest development related to the absentee ballot chain of custody documents from the November 2020 election, Fulton County elections officials have contradicted Georgia Public Broadcasting News’s claims about their source for the drop box transfer forms and that documents for 18,901 absentee ballots remain missing.

On August 3, The Georgia Star News reported that Fulton County denied the same chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the November 2020 general election that they purportedly gave to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News on or before June 17.

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Georgia Ballots Rejected by Machines Were Later Altered by Election Workers to Count

Admin

A day after the November election, as Donald Trump and other Republican candidates clung to evaporating leads in Georgia, vote counters in Atlanta were confronted by a paper ballot known only by its anonymizing number 5150-232-18.

A Dominion Voting machine had rejected the ballot on election night because the voter had filled in boxes for both Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, an error known as an “overvote.” The machine determined neither candidate should get a tally, and the ballot was referred for human review.

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See Disputed Georgia Ballots Where Election Workers Decided a Vote Was for Biden, not Trump

Admin

As part of a review of hundreds of pages of election documents from Georgia’s Fulton County, Just the News reviewed dozens of disputed ballots in which election workers known as “adjudicators” determined that a voter intended to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden instead of Republican incumbent Donald Trump.

Just the News’s review of the Fulton documents revealed a system rife with subjective judgment of thousands of ballots on the part of a small number of election workers, all of it governed by a confusing patchwork of state laws that simultaneously seemed to sanction and proscribe the practice of ballot adjudication.

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Fulton County Chain of Custody Documents Purportedly Given to Georgia Public Broadcasting on June 17 Have Been Denied to The Georgia Star News

Laura Baigert
Georgia Public Broadcasting building

In a stunning development Wednesday, Fulton County has denied The Georgia Star News the same chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the November 2020 election, that they purportedly gave to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News on or before June 17.

Fulton County’s Legal Assistant Shana Eatmon’s emailed response informed The Star News said that there are no documents that meet our open records request.

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Fulton County Fails to Meet Their Own Deadline to Provide Absentee Ballot Chain of Custody Documents From November 2020 Election, Delays Response for a Third Time

Laura Baigert

Fulton County election officials have failed to meet a second response date they set to provide The Georgia Star News with complete chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the November 3, 2020, general election.  For a third time, Fulton County has extended their response date, this time to August 6, 2021.

Fulton County’s communication about the third extension comes more than eight months and five follow-up requests after The Star News filed an initial open records request on December 1, 2020, for the drop box transfer forms that document the critical chain of custody of absentee ballots deposited in 37 drop boxes installed throughout Fulton County for the 41 days of the November 2020 election period.

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Pennsylvania Punishes County That Allowed Audit of Vote Counting Machines

Admin

The Pennsylvania Department of State decertified Fulton County’s voting machines on Wednesday after officials there participated in a third-party audit.

The voluntary probe came at the request of Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) who’s currently spearheading a larger effort to audit machines in Tioga, York and Philadelphia counties amid his ongoing campaign to ferret out fraudulent activity during the past two elections.

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Speaker of Georgia House Demands Investigation into Fulton County Election Irregularities

Admin
Speaker David Ralston presides over the Georgia House chamber

Georgia’s Speaker of the House David Ralston is demanding an investigation to “determine if any irregularities or willful fraud occurred” in the state’s largest metropolis last November, saying recent revelations about problems with vote counting in Fulton County merit an independent probe.

Ralston sent a letter late last week to Fulton County election officials requesting that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation be allowed to conduct the investigation.

The request comes after Just the News reported last month that an independent observer for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger noted two dozen pages of irregularities in the Atlanta vote counting center last Nov. 3, including double scanning of ballots, insecure transportation of ballots and possible voter privacy violations.

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