The investigation started by the Georgia Secretary of State — into the missing ballot drop box forms in Fulton County — was initiated a week before the public announcement was made.
However, the announcement of the timeline of the investigation is inconsistent with other statements made by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“What prompted the announcement of the investigation was the latest story, but I think investigation was underway even before that point, because we could tell that it was just not up to standards,” an official with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office told The Epoch Times.
Earlier this week, The Georgia Star News reported that 385 transfer forms out of an estimated 1,565 transfer forms Fulton County said should have been provided are missing. Further, Fulton County has failed to provide the transfer forms for approximately 19,000 drop box absentee ballots.
In response to the story, Raffensperger said that the “new revelations” would be investigated. But, according to the official speaking with The Times, the revelations were not new information to their office.
“We received lots of documents. What we found out after we had a chance to dig into them is that on some of them, the paperwork wasn’t complete,” the official said. “That’s why we launched a formal investigation to get to the bottom of that.”
It is unclear whether Raffensperger planned to publicly announce the investigation without the reporting of the Star News. This has led to many critics calling for greater transparency in the election process.
Gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones highlighted these concerns at a press conference on Thursday. “Based on this new evidence we know the Secretary of State Raffensperger knew about these egregious irregularities, but still maintained our election was secure because he still choose to argue against the need for a forensic audit,” he argued. “Why did Raffensperger not release this information to the public?”
Additionally, Raffensperger has said that 123 Georgia counties had absentee ballot drop boxes for the November election, only three small counties violated Georgia Rules and Regulations by failing to do their absentee ballot transfer forms — not Fulton County.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
