Delay in alleged ballot fraud case continues

ELLIJAY, Ga – On June 20, the Ful­ton Coun­ty alleged bal­lot audit case con­tin­ued with Hen­ry Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Bri­an Amero hear­ing motions to dismiss. 

Amero didn’t issue a rul­ing on Mon­day cit­ing a need for more time to con­sid­er the motions. He needs to decide who is the respon­si­ble par­ty for the law­suit. VoterGa.org and plain­tiff Gar­land Favorito believes it will take Amero a cou­ple of weeks to decide how to move forward. 

On Jan­u­ary 1, a new law went into effect con­cern­ing sov­er­eign immu­ni­ty, which deals with the ques­tion of “who to sue.” The new amend­ment made it eas­i­er to sue indi­vid­u­als and groups in their offi­cial capacity. 

Ful­ton Coun­ty attor­neys argued since the alleged inci­dent took place before Jan­u­ary 1, the case should be thrown out. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, the board of elec­tions and the coun­ty are both try­ing to get out of the law­suit by plac­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty on the oth­er party’s shoul­der. It’s like­ly if the case moves for­ward Ful­ton Coun­ty will remain in the suit and pos­si­bly the board of elec­tions indi­vid­u­als, accord­ing to Favorito. 

Pre­vi­ous­ly, the judge ordered the unseal­ing of the bal­lots in Ful­ton Coun­ty but halt­ed the process when the motion to dis­miss was filed. The order is still valid.  Favorito expects the audit to go for­ward in August. 

The Clerk of Court cur­rent­ly has cus­tody of the bal­lots and Amero has informed Ful­ton Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office that they’re respon­si­ble for bal­lot secu­ri­ty. Some Hen­ry Coun­ty deputies are also involved in secu­ri­ty mea­sures. The ware­house is con­trolled by the Ful­ton Coun­ty Board of Elections. 

The com­plaint suit was adjust­ed by the plain­tiffs to address the man­age­ment of future elections. 

Geor­gia elec­tion offi­cials have con­tin­u­al­ly denied any mas­sive fraud in the state. Three sep­a­rate recounts were con­duct­ed. The Sec­re­tary of State’s Office is in the mid­dle of inves­ti­gat­ing over 100 elec­tion fraud cases.