The chair of the Republican Party in Georgia cast doubt on the election process and an apparent lack of transparency in Fulton County, suggesting ballots were counted “in secret” on Election Day.
“Let me repeat,” posted David Shafer on Monday. “Fulton County elections officials told the media and our observers that they were shutting down the tabulation center at State Farm Arena at 10:30 p.m. on election night only to continue counting ballots in secret until 1:00 a.m.”
Let me repeat. Fulton County elections officials told the media and our observers that they were shutting down the tabulation center at State Farm Arena at 10:30 p.m. on election night only to continue counting ballots in secret until 1:00 a.m.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) November 10, 2020
“No one disputes that Fulton County elections officials falsely announced that the counting of ballots would stop at 10:30 p.m.,” the GOP chair noted. “No one disputes that Fulton County elected officials unlawfully resumed the counting of ballots after our observers left the center.”
According to Fulton County Elections head Richard Barron, ballots continued to be counted until 1 a.m. on election night after Barron “sent home just about all his workers at about 10:30 p.m.,” reported Fox News:
Richard Barron, the head of the Fulton County Elections, told the Journal-Constitution that he sent home just about all his workers at about 10:30 p.m. on election night. The paper said GOP observers “thought all was done for the night.” But a handful of counters stayed until 1 a.m., along with a state observer, to tally the votes. Barron told the paper that the GOP was welcome to observe.
“The [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] is gaslighting you when they report that there is no evidence of irregularity in the election,” Shafer claimed.
The @AJC is gaslighting you when they report that there is no evidence of irregularity in the election.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) November 10, 2020
Twitter flagged Shafer’s tweet suggesting election “irregularities” in Georgia with the label: “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
Clicking the warning immediately leads users to general statements about voter fraud in the U.S., though the country has never seen the number of unsolicited mail-in ballots in our history as we did this election:
– Voter fraud of any type is incredibly rare in the US, according to The Associated Press and Reuters
– US officials say the 2020 US election will be more secure than the 2016 US presidential election
– US officials confirm that foreign governments are trying to influence the US election, but that foreign governments’ interference is mostly relegated to launching misinformation campaigns
– Experts say US elections are ‘resilient’
AJC reported Monday that there is no evidence of wrongdoing, noting that “there have been cases of ‘minor issue’ caused by human error,” Fox detailed.
Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican, spotlighted the tweets from Shafer on Monday, captioning the thread with open eyes emojis.
— Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) November 10, 2020
On Election Day, Fulton County delayed vote counting after a pipe reportedly burst in their facility.
“A broken water pipe at the ballot processing site at State Farm arena caused a delay in Fulton County’s ability to process thousands of absentee-by-mail votes Tuesday night,” reported AJC.
The burst pipe, however, was fixed within hours and no ballots were damaged, AJC said. Still, the county said they would stop counting votes at 10:30 p.m., for reasons AJC said was not provided.
The county “planned to stop scanning absentee ballots at 10:30 p.m. and pick it up back in the morning,” reported AJC. “No official could explain before press time why Fulton was stopping its count of absentee ballots at that time, only saying that was the procedure.”