Georgia’s Republican attorney general announced Monday his office would not conduct an investigation into Fulton County for its conduct during the 2020 election. The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) ruled in May that Fulton County repeatedly violated election law during the 2020 election.
Attorney General Christopher Carr said in a post on X on Aug. 1 that the state would “investigate specific claims of voter fraud.”
“Based on the facts and evidence, we stand ready to prosecute any voter fraud found in the State of Georgia,” Carr’s post continued.
Six days later the SEB voted 3-2 to ask Carr to investigate Fulton County, with members of the board specifically referring to a complaint labeled SEB 2023-025, which was filed by Kevin Moncla and Joseph Rossi. The complaint included allegations of roughly 3,000 “duplicate ballots” and nearly 18,000 votes “for which no physical ballot was in evidence.” In May, the SEB passed a motion finding that the county double-scanned 3,075 ballots, though it did not rule on the 17,852 votes allegedly missing ballot images or other allegations made in the complaint.
The resolution says if Carr does not investigate then the board can hire an independent investigator, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
But in a letter to SEB Chairman John Fervier, Carr said the SEB is “not empowered to direct the Attorney General to conduct an investigation under Title 21 whether on his own or through outside investigators.”
“The authority to investigate potential violations of the election laws rests with the SEB and not with the Attorney General,” the letter continues. “This Office is not required to conduct an investigation on its own or with outside personnel at the direction of a client agency.”
The letter cites state code that says the SEB can “investigate” or “authorize” the secretary of state to investigate any alleged issues and then report the violations to the attorney general for “further investigation and prosecution.”
The Federalist inquired with Carr’s office as to why he backtracked on his commitment to investigate alleged fraud.
A spokeswoman for Carr’s office told The Federalist that “the SEB attempted to direct the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the matters that had already been investigated and adjudicated. Under our Constitution and laws, the SEB may not reopen an investigation that has already been adjudicated. The matter raised by the SEB has already been investigated and adjudicated.”
The attorney general’s announcement that he would not investigate Fulton County was met with criticism from election integrity activists and local Republicans, including the chairwoman of the DeKalb County Republican Party, Marci McCarthy, who called Carr’s position “disingenuous” in a statement to The Federalist.
“AG Chris Carr’s position is disingenuous, particularly given his recent announcement on August 1, 2024, expressing a willingness to investigate specific claims of voter fraud,” McCarthy said. “With new evidence emerging regarding Fulton County’s handling of the 2020 presidential recount, his refusal to act is not only disappointing but also undermines the trust Georgians place in our elections system.”
“Consistent accountability is essential, and this selective inaction does a disservice to the pursuit of justice,” McCarthy continued.
What the Complaint Says
Moncla and Rossi filed their complaint in 2022, alleging the presence of 3,125 duplicate ballots as well as “17,852 votes … for which no physical ballot was in evidence.” As previously noted, the SEB panel passed a motion confirming that the county double-scanned 3,075 ballots.
The complaint also alleges that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “ordered the supervisor of elections of Fulton County to reconcile their totals because — based on the count of physical ballots — Fulton County had submitted vote totals (511,543) lower than that of the original count from Election Night (528,777).”
“What was not made public and is central to this complaint is that those results were 17,234 below the vote counts reported on Election Night,” the complaint continues. “By the time of the certification on December 4, 2020, Fulton County claimed to have found 16,382 votes — nearly all of the shortfall.”
The SEB voted Monday to require that the number of ballots cast equal the number of voters (reconciliation).
SEB Rules Fulton County Violated Election Law
The SEB ruled 2-1 in May that Fulton County violated election law during the 2020 election and therefore must have an independent monitor to oversee its elections. The board stopped short of referring the case for further investigation to the attorney general at the time.
During the 2020 presidential election, when former President Donald Trump lost Georgia by just 11,779 votes, Fulton County double-scanned more than 3,000 ballots, the SEB found. While the Georgia secretary of state’s office could not confirm how many — if any — of the double-scanned ballots were counted twice, Moncla tells The Federalist he believes the double-scanned ballots were counted twice since he says they appeared in the cast vote record.
SEB member Janice Johnston said during the SEB’s May meeting that there are also 380,761 ballot images from the Election Day machine count that are “not available.”
Despite the violations, the motion adopted by the board “allows the county to avoid paying a fine or having the attorney general investigate the double-counting of 3,075 ballots and other allegations of irregularities during the 2020 presidential recount,” according to the Georgia Recorder.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported in 2023 that during the 2020 presidential election audit in Fulton County, there were “several cases” where election workers “mistyped vote totals or allocated votes to the wrong candidate” but that the SEB “ordered Fulton County to ‘cease and desist’ from violations in future audits, implement new audit procedures and adequately train elections staff.”
The SEB also voted unanimously in 2023 to not take over Fulton County elections despite the acknowledgment of serious wrongdoing by the county.
The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections approved a plan for an independent monitoring team in July to oversee their elections. The SEB heard proposals for monitors earlier this month. One proposal includes individuals who were involved in overseeing Georgia’s 2020 election cycle, such as Ryan Germany, who served as the general counsel to Raffensperger’s office during the 2020 election.
Executive Director of the Coalition for Good Governance Marilyn Marks criticized the proposal as “questionable.”
“Appointing those in leadership and decision-making positions related to the 2020 problems in Fulton … as monitors for $100,000 seems to be a generous reward for permitting and concealing the deficiencies rather than an effective punitive deterrent to protect 2024.”
Moncla also criticized the proposed monitoring team.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again, expecting different results,” Moncla said.
