Tag: Fulton County

Taxpayer-Funded National Public Radio Spreads 2020 Election Misinformation About Absentee Ballot Drop Box Chain of Custody Documents in Georgia

Laura Baigert

Taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR) spread 2020 election misinformation about absentee ballot drop box chain of custody documents in Georgia in an article written by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) political reporter Stephen Fowler published on Friday. That article was the basis for a four-minute segment broadcast across NPR’s national network Friday afternoon.

The NPR Politics Twitter account tweeted the story, titled “How Pro-Trump Local News Sites Keep Pushing 2020 Election Misinformation,” out on Friday.

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Georgia Public Broadcasting Reveals Secretary of State Raffensperger Delivered Some Fulton County Absentee Ballot Chain of Custody Documents to Them in April

Laura Baigert

An interview between The Georgia Star News and Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News revealed that they had received Fulton County’s drop box absentee ballot transfer forms from the Secretary of State’s office in April.  GPB News, however, did not report on their findings until after The Star News report in June.

Stephen Fowler of Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News requested an interview with John Fredericks, which also included Laura Baigert, of The Georgia Star News, as part of his fact-check for a story and to get comments from everyone involved.

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Georgia Secretary of State Says He Wants Fulton County Elections Taken Over by State

Georgia Star News Staff

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Just the News on Wednesday that he wants Fulton County elections taken over by the state under a new law that addresses localities with habitual problems counting ballots, dramatically escalating his battle with the state’s largest urban center in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

“I think people are saying, enough is enough,” Raffensperger said in a podcast interview in which he discussed using the new election integrity law known as Senate Bill 202 to have the State Elections Board take over the Atlanta-area election counting in time for the 2022 elections.

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In Georgia’s Largest County, ‘An Army of Temps’ Oversaw an Election Rife with Security Issues

Georgia Star News Staff

“They were doing things eagerly but incorrectly.”

That was a judgment rendered in a Georgia election monitor’s report last year detailing what the investigator said were a series of problems brought on by improperly trained temporary staffers handling the absentee ballot scanning operation in Fulton County.

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Fulton County GOP Chair Candidate Troubled by Errors and Omissions in Ongoing Election Conflict

Chris Butler

After two months of drama, the election for a new Fulton County Republican Party (FCRP) chair remains on hold, but a resolution is pending. The outcome will likely determine whether the FCRP sticks to its establishment roots or veers in a direction more friendly to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

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‘Horrendous’: Georgia Audit Lawyer Demands Full Investigation into Fulton County’s Ballot Irregularities

Georgia Star News Staff

Alawyer spearheading a major ballot audit inside Georgia’s largest county is warning the irregularities apparent in that county’s election management are “horrendous” and cut against “the basic principle of our democracy.”

Atlanta-based attorney Bob Cheeley made those claims while talking to Just the News editor-in-chief John Solomon on Tuesday night’s “Securing our Elections: Protecting Your Vote” special on Real America’s Voice.

Cheeley is among the investigators approved by a Georgia court to audit the 2020 absentee ballots of Fulton County, Ga., a county critical to Joe Biden’s historic 2020 win of Georgia that helped propel him to the White House.

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68 Percent of Previously Missing Fulton County Drop Box Transfer Forms Lack Receipt Time that Documents Chain of Custody

Laura Baigert

A preliminary analysis by The Georgia Star News of Fulton County drop box transfer forms covering five days in October 2020 that were previously missing reveals that 68 percent lack a recording of the time the absentee ballots were received by the registrar or designee which documents the ballot chain of custody.

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News published a report on the transfer forms that they said they received from Fulton County on June 15. 

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Commentary: Georgia Conducting Secret 2020 Ballot Review –– Keeping Plaintiffs in the Dark

RealClearWire

After several Fulton County, Ga., poll monitors testified last year that boxes of mail-in ballots for Joe Biden looked liked they’d been run through a photocopy machine, state investigators quietly broke the seal on one suspicious box and inspected the hundreds of votes it contained for signs of fraud, RealClearInvestigations has learned exclusively.

At the same time, a key whistleblower told RCI that state investigators pressured her to recant her story about what she and other poll monitors had observed — what they called unusually “pristine” mail-in ballots while sorting through them during last November’s hand recount.

“I felt I was under investigation,” said Suzi Voyles, a longtime Fulton County poll manager whose sworn affidavits have been used by election watchdogs to sue the county for access to the ballots in question.

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Report: Georgia Officials Secretly Inspected Fulton Ballots, Despite Judge’s Order

Chris Butler

State investigators in Georgia reportedly inspected hundreds of potentially suspicious absentee ballots in Fulton County supposedly cast during last year’s presidential election even though those officials didn’t have the legal right to do so. This, according to an article that Real Clear Investigations published Tuesday.

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The Washington Post Calls Fulton County’s Absentee Ballot Chain of Custody Documentation ‘Shoddy’ and ‘Sloppy,’ Cites Georgia Star News Reporting

Laura Baigert

In a story this week, The Washington Post referred to Fulton County’s record-keeping of the chain of custody documentation of the absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the November 3, 2020, election “shoddy” and “sloppy.”

While the apparent goal of the story was to deliver “Four Pinocchios” to former President Donald Trump for what The Post called “baseless claims about ballot drop boxes in Fulton County, Ga,” it made arguments supporting claims of election irregularities.

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Fulton County Again Fails to Deliver Missing Absentee Ballot Transfer Forms to The Georgia Star News

Laura Baigert

Fulton County elections officials have failed to provide complete absentee ballot drop box transfer forms to The Georgia Star News that they provided to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News last week.

The Star News broke the news on Monday, June 14, that a Fulton County elections official admitted that “a few forms are missing” and that during a COVID outbreak at the Elections Preparation Center (EPC) “some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced,” with regard to 385 drop box transfer forms The Star News is still missing from 1,565 transfer forms Fulton County documented on a spreadsheet that tracked daily absentee ballot collections during the November 2020 election.

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Former Trump Campaign Advisor Boris Epshteyn Predicts States Will Decertify 2020 Election Results

Cooper Moran

Boris Epshteyn, attorney and former strategic advisor to the 2020 Trump Campaign, predicted that many states will decertify their election results for the November 2020 election.

In an interview with Gina Loudon, Epshteyn said the series of audits that may occur could lead to the reversal. Additionally, there is no language in the Constitution that prevents such a move. 

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Georgia Voters’ Rights on the Docket as Judge Grapples with Fulton County Election Controversy: No Decision Yet

Chris Butler

McDONOUGH, GEORGIA — The lawsuit alleging voting shenanigans in Fulton County during last year’s presidential election continued Monday as Chief Judge Brian Amero heard opposing attorneys spar over voters’ rights and who to hold accountable for violating those rights. Amero presides over the case out of Henry County.

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Tweet by Georgia Public Broadcasting Writer Reveals More Chain of Custody Document Discrepancies in Fulton County Absentee Ballot Transfer Forms

Laura Baigert

A tweet by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News writer Stephen Fowler on Saturday revealed more chain of custody document discrepancies in Fulton County’s absentee ballot drop box transfer forms.

The tweet included a partial image – the very top only — of two transfer forms Fowler claims were part of an open records response GPB News received on Wednesday from Fulton County election officials.

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Bombshell Investigative Piece About Fulton County Documents ‘Massive Election Integrity Problems’ Last November

Chris Butler

Fulton County, Georgia had more election integrity problems during last year’s U.S. presidential elections than were previously known, according to a new investigative report that Just the News published late Thursday night. Reporters John Solomon and Daniel Payne cited a 29-page memo they obtained that documented double counting of votes, insecure storage, threats, and massive chain of custody irregularities.

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Georgia Public Broadcasting Reports Receiving Transfer Forms from Fulton County Not Provided to The Georgia Star News

Laura Baigert
Georgia Public Broadcasting building

Georgia Public Broadcasting News, part of the taxpayer-funded network of state PBS television stations and NPR radio stations, reported Wednesday, June 16, 2021, that they received from Fulton County all but eight of the 385 missing absentee ballot drop box transfer forms The Georgia Star News has reported on.

After six months and several open records requests, 385 of the transfer forms that document the chain of custody of absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes and transferred to the county registrar during the November 3, 2020, election have still not been provided to The Star News.

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Georgia Investigator’s Notes Reveal ‘Massive’ Election Integrity Problems in Atlanta

Georgia Star News Staff
Person with mask on at a computer.

In a nationally televised interview in January, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rattled off an impressive list of measures his state used to ensure the November election count was accurate. “We had safe, secure, honest elections,” he declared to “60 Minutes.”

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Former President Trump Praises Georgia Star News Reporter Laura Baigert

Cooper Moran

Former President Donald Trump released a statement on Thursday praising Georgia Star News journalist Laura Baigert for her investigative reporting efforts.

“Thank you and congratulations to Laura Baigert of the Georgia Star News on the incredible reporting you have done. Keep going! The scam is all unraveling fast!” President Trump said of her reporting.

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Despite Prolonged Fight, Election Date to Settle Fulton County GOP Chairmanship Remains Unscheduled

Chris Butler
Betsy Shaw Kramer

Members of the Fulton County Republican Party (FCRP) have yet to elect a chairperson, despite talk that they had scheduled an election to settle the matter this past Saturday. GOP officials at the state level may have to help resolve the conflict.

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Missing Fulton County Chain of Custody Documents to be Investigated by Secretary of State Raffensperger

Laura Baigert

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday that a thorough investigation will be conducted of Fulton County’s inability to produce the critical chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes during the November 3, 2020 election.

Raffensperger made his announcement via Twitter, following the lead story Monday in The Georgia Star News that a Fulton County election official admitted that chain of custody documents are missing for absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes in the 2020 election.

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Fulton County Election Official Admits Chain of Custody Documents Missing for 2020 Absentee Ballots Deposited in Drop Boxes

Laura Baigert

In a stunning admission about the critical chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes in the November 3, 2020, election, Fulton County election officials have said that “some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced.”

This is the first time that an election official has made an admission regarding the occurrence of significant election issues.

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The Georgia Star News Analysis of Fulton County Drop Box Absentee Ballot Chain of Custody Documents from September 29 through November 3, 2020

Laura Baigert

The purpose of this story is to present the analysis that The Georgia Star News has conducted on the chain of custody documents provided by Fulton County for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the early voting and election-day period of September 29 through November 3, 2020.

The documents provided to The Star News have been part of an ongoing series of Open Records Requests made to Fulton County for the absentee ballot drop box transfer forms, which began more than six months ago.

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Chain-of-Custody Documents: View All the Ballot Transfer Forms from the November 2020 Election Provided by Fulton County to The Georgia Star News

Laura Baigert

On May 3, 2021, six months after the November 3, 2020 presidential election, Fulton County election officials provided The Georgia Star News with a thumb drive containing 30 files those officials said complied with an Open Records Request made by The Star News. The request made to Fulton County was one in a series of Open Records Requests made to all 159 counties in Georgia to produce all chain of custody documents, known as absentee ballot drop box transfer forms, from that election.

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Metro Atlanta Leaders to Use Federal Money to Address Crime

The Center Square
Keisha Lance Bottoms

Leaders in the metro Atlanta area said they plan to use American Rescue Plan funding to address public safety issues.

Officials in Fulton and DeKalb counties and the city of Atlanta have announced plans to use a portion of the federal aid to increase public safety or address criminal justice backlogs.

According to several reports, Atlanta and adjacent cities have seen a spike in crime over the past year. State lawmakers have launched a study to look at ways to curb the issue. Gov. Brian Kemp directed $5 million last month from his emergency fund to address the crisis.

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Commentary: ‘Pristine’ Biden Ballots That Looked Xeroxed and Why a Judge Has Georgia Vote Fraud on His Mind

Tiffany Morgan

When Fulton County, Ga., poll manager Suzi Voyles sorted through a large stack of mail-in ballots last November, she noticed an alarmingly odd pattern of uniformity in the markings for Joseph R. Biden. One after another, the absentee votes contained perfectly filled-in ovals for Biden — except that each of the darkened bubbles featured an identical white void inside them in the shape of a tiny crescent, indicating they’d been marked with toner ink instead of a pen or pencil.

Adding to suspicions, she noticed that all of the ballots were printed on different stock paper than the others she handled as part of a statewide hand recount of the razor-thin Nov. 3 presidential election. And none was folded or creased, as she typically observed in mail-in ballots that had been removed from envelopes.

In short, the Biden votes looked like they’d been duplicated by a copying machine.

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Georgia GOP Establishment Leaders Continue to Mishandle Fulton County Chairmanship Race, Members Say

Chris Butler

A supporter of Susan Opraseuth’s said Tuesday the candidate does not have a database of 330 delegates she needs as she campaigns to replace Fulton County Republican Party incumbent chair Trey Kelly — but she’s supposed to. Party members said this election pits Kelly, an establishment Republican, against Opraseuth, who strongly supports former U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Georgia Republicans Demand Brian Kemp Seek Forensic Audit of 2020 Election

Chris Butler

Republicans throughout Georgia have asked Gov. Brian Kemp to convene a special session of the state legislature so that independent parties can conduct a forensic audit of the state’s November 2020 presidential election. These Republicans sent an open letter to the people of Georgia, which they forwarded to The Georgia Star News Thursday.

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Vernon Jones Tells Brian Kemp to Investigate Mysterious Fulton County Warehouse Break-In

Chris Butler

The apparent break-in at the Fulton County warehouse where officials were storing ballots for a pending audit has prompted Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones to demand an official investigation. “This report, if true, is deeply concerning and needs to be independently investigated at once. I am calling on Governor Kemp to immediately order an investigation into this matter by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” Jones told supporters Monday in an emailed statement.

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Apparent Break-In Occurred at Georgia Warehouse Housing Ballots at Center of Pending Election Audit

Corinne Murdock
Downtown Atlanta

An apparent break-in occurred at the ballot-holding warehouse where the ballots for the pending Fulton County, Georgia audit were housed. According to reports, security guards hired by Fulton County left the facility. About 20 minutes later, the facility’s alarm was set off. A security detail hired by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Bob Cheeley, relayed to reporters that the facility door was wide open.

The audit concerns over 145,000 ballots from the presidential election. President Joe Biden won Georgia with just over 12,600 votes.

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Judge Halts Audit of Georgia Ballots

Cooper Moran

A judge in Georgia is temporarily stopping the audit on absentee ballots in Fulton County, Georgia that was allowed earlier last week.

Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero, the same judge who granted the initial audit, ruled as officials within the county have filed numerous motions in an attempt to stop the audit. 

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Georgia Elections Director to Leave Position

Cooper Moran

Chris Harvey, the elections director within the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, has decided to leave the agency for a different position. 

Harvey oversaw the 2020 elections and was responsible for implementing a new voting system and machines in the state of Georgia.

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State Sen. Burt Jones Says Fulton County Election Audit May Require Georgia Bureau of Investigation Involvement

Chris Butler
Georgia State Senator Burt Jones

If an audit of absentee ballots that Fulton County officials tallied during the 2020 presidential election produces any irregularities then the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) must step in, said one state legislator. State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) told The Georgia Star News Monday that if the audit proves any irregularities than that means one or more people committed fraud in last year’s election.

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Six Months After the Election, Fulton County Says ‘More Time Is Needed’ to Produce Complete Chain of Custody Documents for Absentee Ballots Deposited in Drop Boxes

Laura Baigert

Six months after the November 2020 election and after failing on two occasions to produce complete chain of custody documents for absentee ballot drop boxes, the Fulton County Registration & Elections officials advise that “more time is needed.”

Fulton County’s reply to The Georgia Star News came as a response to a follow-up on previously-supplied records related the transfer forms that document the critical chain of custody for absentee ballots deposited over a 41-day voting period in 37 drop boxes placed throughout Fulton County.

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Judge Allows Audit of 145,000 Georgia Absentee Ballots in Fulton County

Cooper Moran

A ruling issued by a Georgia judge on Friday will allow officials to conduct an audit of roughly 145,000 absentee ballots cast in Fulton County in the 2020 election. 

The scope of the audit will allow for the examination of signatures on these ballots to ensure that they are legitimate. 

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Fulton County Supplied Two Different Versions of 34 Critical Chain of Custody Documents for Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes That Go Back In Time

Laura Baigert

Fulton County election officials provided two different versions of 34 completed critical chain of custody documents for absentee ballot drop boxes from the November 2020 election.

The documents were provided in response to open records requests made by The Georgia Star News, which remain incomplete even six months after the election, The Star reported.

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Trump Releases Statement on Georgia Lieutenant Governor

Cooper Moran

President Donald Trump released a statement on Monday celebrating the decision that Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan will not seek a second term. 

“Good news for Georgia and the Republican Party. Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan won’t be running again for office. He was the one who, along with Governor Brian Kemp, stopped the Georgia State Senate from doing the job they wanted to do on the 2020 Presidential Election Fraud,” Trump said. 

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85 Percent of 59,000 Absentee Ballots Placed in Fulton County Drop Boxes in 2020 Election Were Not Transported to Registrar ‘Immediately’ As Georgia State Rule Requires; 5 Percent Were Delivered BEFORE They Were Picked Up

Laura Baigert

Ballot transfer forms from Fulton County reveal that 86 percent of the more than 59,000 absentee ballots analyzed from drop box locations, required to be “immediately transported” to the county registrar according to Emergency Rule of the State Election Board for Absentee Voting, took more than one hour to be transferred to election officials.

State Election Board Emergency Rule 183-1-14 relative to securing absentee ballot drop boxes, which went around state law, was adopted by the State Election Board at their July 1, 2020, meeting.

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Six Months After the 2020 Election, Fulton County Has Failed to Produce Chain of Custody Documents for 18,901 Absentee Ballots Placed in Drop Boxes

Laura Baigert

Six months after the November 3, 2020 election, Fulton County has failed to produce complete chain of custody documents for 18,901 vote-by-mail absentee ballots deposited by voters into drop boxes.

The Fulton County missing documentation is a little more than five percent of the estimated 333,000 vote-by-mail absentee ballots cast in the November 3, 2020 general election for which chain of custody documentation is still missing.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has refused to collect, count, and verify the chain of custody documentation associated with an estimated 600,000 absentee vote by mail ballots deposited in drop boxes in the 2020 general election. Instead, Raffensperger has said it is a county responsibility. The Georgia Star News has filed Open Records Requests with all 159 counties in the state to obtain this documentation and report on it to the public.

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Atlanta Republican Fed up with GOP Establishment Says ‘The Old Guard is Cornered’

Chris Butler

One Atlanta conservative unsettled by the behavior of the Fulton County Republican leadership at their party’s convention last month said too many members of the old GOP establishment resist change — and put the party in peril. Rob Cunningham told The Georgia Star News this week that “the call to get engaged [among the grassroots] is being heeded.”

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Witness Says Fulton County GOP Officials Behaved Dishonorably at Recent Convention

Chris Butler

Witnesses who attended April’s Fulton County GOP convention — already unhappy with how the convention played out — have complained of additional shenanigans that establishment members pulled to preserve their power and keep grassroots Trump supporters at bay. Fulton County GOP members held their convention April 17 at The Metropolitan Club in Alpharetta.

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Furious Parents Demand Fulton County School System Scrap Students’ COVID-19 Mask Mandate

Chris Butler

Fulton County parent Danielle Denlien urged — unsuccessfully — that members of the Fulton County School Board abolish the COVID-19 mask mandate they impose upon students. But before she could finish, a law enforcement officer escorted her away from the podium.

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Furious Parents Demand Fulton County School System Scrap Students’ COVID-19 Mask Mandate

Chris Butler

Fulton County parent Danielle Denlien urged — unsuccessfully — that members of the Fulton County School Board abolish the COVID-19 mask mandate they impose upon students. But before she could finish, a law enforcement officer escorted her away from the podium.

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Fulton County GOP Vice Chair Tells Embattled Chair Trey Kelly to ‘Stop This Madness’

Chris Butler

A vice-chair of the Fulton County Republican Party on Monday told Chair Trey Kelly that it’s in the party’s best interest that he step aside. Fulton County GOP Vice Chair Zach Hines relayed the message through a YouTube video. Former Fulton County GOP Vice Chair Jamie Parrish uploaded the video to his personal YouTube channel.

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Fulton County GOP Vice Chair Tells Embattled Chair Trey Kelly to ‘Stop This Madness’

Chris Butler

A vice-chair of the Fulton County Republican Party on Monday told Chair Trey Kelly that it’s in the party’s best interest that he step aside. Fulton County GOP Vice Chair Zach Hines relayed the message through a YouTube video. Former Fulton County GOP Vice Chair Jamie Parrish uploaded the video to his personal YouTube channel.

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Fierce Competition for New Fulton County GOP Leadership Position on Appeal, Georgia State Committee Members Likely to Resolve Fight

Chris Butler

Going by what attendees said, Fulton County GOP members this month had a convention to keep an establishment Republican incumbent as its chair or go a different path and elect new blood, a strong Trump supporter. At the end of the day, no one left that convention happy.

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Fierce Competition for New Fulton County GOP Leadership Position on Appeal, Georgia State Committee Members Likely to Resolve Fight

Chris Butler

Going by what attendees said, Fulton County GOP members this month had a convention to keep an establishment Republican incumbent as its chair or go a different path and elect new blood, a strong Trump supporter. At the end of the day, no one left that convention happy.

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Five and a Half Months After 2020 Election Fulton County Fails to Produce Complete Chain of Custody Documents for Absentee Vote by Mail Ballots Deposited in Drop Boxes

Tiffany Morgan

Nearly half a year after the 2020 Election, and four months after the original inquiry, Fulton County has failed to fulfill the Open Records Request with The Georgia Star News. Although the county did provide some chain of custody documents, initial analysis by The Star News indicates that the Fulton County ballot transfer form records sent may be incomplete.

On January 22, Fulton County Officials responded to the Open Records request made by The Star News with two PDF files. As previously reported, of those two files – one with a label that ended with BX-1, and another with a label that ended with BX-3 – showed ballot transfer form records for 36,635 absentee votes by mail ballots deposited in drop boxes.

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New Emails Heighten Mystery Around Presidential Vote Count in Georgia’s Largest County

Admin

Internal emails from Fulton County election workers obtained by Just the News are heightening the mystery surrounding ballot-processing in Georgia’s largest county during last November’s presidential contest.

Uncertainty arose regarding the ballot processing operation at Fulton County’s State Farm Arena on and after Election Night, when ballot-scanning apparently continued even after most election workers had reportedly been sent home.

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