Reuters: Judge allows self-described anti-fraud group to review Georgia ballots

A Georgia judge on Friday ordered Atlanta’s Fulton County to unseal more than 145,000 absentee ballots cast during the November 2020 election, allowing self-described election integrity activists to evaluate the legitimacy of the ballots.

Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero, who is overseeing the case, ruled that Fulton County must unseal the ballots so the petitioners could inspect and scan them, not merely look at copies, according to his order filed in the Fulton County Superior Court.

The order paves the way for a second review of ballots in the United States by private groups who claim without evidence that widespread voting fraud in populous cities helped Joe Biden, a Democrat, unfairly defeat then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Trump and his allies spent two months denying his election defeat. State and federal officials and multiple courts rejected the Trump campaign’s claims that the election was stolen from him. Trump followers attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 while Congress was certifying the results, leading to five deaths.

Since then, Trump supporters have sought revisions of voting outcomes in several states. Arizona’s Republican-controlled state Senate ordered an audit of roughly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, where nearly two thirds of the state’s population resides.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something similar in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, because this is a way for these actors to fundraise for elections going into 2022 and 2024,” said Aunna Dennis, Executive Director of good government group Common Cause Georgia.