Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson filed an affidavit Monday alleging that the “suitcase ballots” video wasn’t fraud, and that poll workers and monitors weren’t told to leave during vote counting. The affidavit totaled two pages of evidentiary claims against outstanding affidavits claiming incidents that occurred in Fulton County.
Watson claimed that their team’s investigation found that no elections officials asked the observers and media to leave.
“They simply left on their own when they saw one group of workers, whose job was only to open envelopes and who had completed that task, also leave.”
Additionally, Watson claimed that the widely-circulated video of ballots in suitcases stowed under tables presented during the Georgia Oversight Committee hearing last Thursday wasn’t what it appeared to be.
“Our investigation and review of the entire security footage revealed that there were no mystery ballots that were brought in from an unknown location and hidden under tables as reported by some. Video taken hours before shows the table being brought into the room at 8:22 a.m. Nothing was underneath the table then. Around 10 p.m., with the room full of people, including official monitors and the media, video shows ballots that had already been opened but not counted placed in the boxes, sealed up, stored under the table. This was done because employees thought that they were done for the night and were closing up and ready to leave. When the counting continued later in the night, those boxes were opened so that the ballots inside could then be counted.”
Trump’s legal team alleged that the video depicted poll workers waited until observers and other workers went home to retrieve ballots hidden in suitcases underneath tables.
Republican Party of Georgia Chairman David Shafer tweeted a response to Watson’s affidavit.
“Fulton County officials have been falsely denying for weeks that they announced they were shutting down for the night and packed everything up. Now they are claiming that the ballots from under the table were from when they announced they were shutting down and packing up.”
According to Shafer the day after the election, the monitors were told to go home. Reports from multiple media outlets confirm that account. Some poll watchers that were told to leave have since filed affidavits.
Additionally, Watson stated that the alleged leak causing temporary delay in votes counts was actually an overflowing urinal.
“Our investigation revealed that the incident initially reported as a water leak late in the evening on November 3rd was actually a urinal that had overflowed early in the morning of November 3rd, and did not affect the counting of votes by Fulton County later in the evening.”
The testimony conflicts with the initial report from elections officials of a “burst pipe.”
Although Watson denied the two claims challenging the election’s integrity, the affidavit concluded that their investigation remains open.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
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