A Fulton County, Georgia lawsuit claiming fraud in the 2020 presidential election has led the judge overseeing the case to heavily consider unsealing ballots, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We want to do this in such a way that dispels rumors and disinformation and sheds light,” Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero said at a hearing Monday.
An investigation was conducted on the allegations that illegal activity transpired at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on the night of the election. The secretary of state’s office dismissed them in December.
If Amero were to unseal the ballots, they would reportedly be reviewed by several election experts, including the co-founder of VoterGA Garland Favorito, who filed the lawsuit. Favorito notably said in December on a Georgia radio station that Trump’s loss in the state “can’t be a human error.” More than 30 lawsuits have been filed in Georgia over the election.
On Monday, former President Donald Trump released a statement in response to The Washington Post and other outlets correcting articles on a widely reported phone call between Trump and Francis Watson, the Georgia secretary of state’s chief investigator. The Wall Street Journal released the audio of the Dec. 23 phone call, forcing outlets to retract previously reported quotes from anonymous sources.
“Fulton County has not been properly audited for vote or signature verification,” the former president said in his statement. “They only looked at areas of the State where there most likely would be few problems, and even there they found large numbers of mistakes. We are seeking to find and reveal the large-scale election fraud which took place in Georgia. Many residents agree, and their anger caused them not to turn out and vote for two Republican Senators in the January election.”
A risk-limiting audit in November announced by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger concluded, “Georgia’s historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state’s new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results.”
Subsequently, the board of elections election chief Robert Brady was terminated after a Floyd County hand-count revealed over 2,500 uncounted ballots.
“We are aware of a significant number of election irregularities,” said Brad Carver, a partner at a prominent Atlanta law firm who led the effort to recommend state laws be amended for elections. “And, yes, if those election irregularities had been remedied, then there would have been a different outcome in the election on Nov. 3.”
In December, election officials in Ware County found that Dominion machines had malfunctioned and switched votes from Trump to Biden. Favorito has continued to assert that it is vital to take a look at ballots in Fulton County, which earned Biden about 72 percent of the vote. Nearby counties Clayton, Douglas, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Cobb, and others leaned heavily blue in Georgia.
