Court Allows Examination of Fulton County Absentee Ballots to go Forward

Today, Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero allowed another examination of Fulton County absentee ballots to go forward. Like other Georgia ballots from the 2020 presidential election, the ballots have already been reviewed three times: including a full hand count and a recount at the request of the Trump campaign.

Statement of Aunna Dennis, Executive Director of Common Cause Georgia 

Here we go, again. People who can’t accept the results of the November election are still trying everything they can think of, trying to reverse the outcome.

This failure, by some segments of the population, to accept the election results has significant costs.

In Maricopa County, Arizona, the results-challenge being led by Cyber Ninjas could cost in the millions of dollars, because all their voting machines now need to be replaced after chain-of-custody and control processes were broken.

Here in Georgia, we are paying the costs in a different way. The idea that some people questioned the election results was used to justify Senate Bill 202 — which created barriers to voting, particularly by Black and brown voters.

It’s a cynical strategy: create artificial “doubt” about our election processes, and then use that doubt to make voting harder for the voters you don’t think will vote for you.

So here we are, again, with yet another lawsuit and yet another recount of the same ballots, artificially creating doubt about Georgia’s elections processes. What are they planning to do, this time? A bill even worse than SB 202? State takeover of the Fulton County elections? 

Our elections are run by our neighbors, by people who live in our communities. Tens of thousands of people worked on Georgia’s 2020 elections, for little or no money, serving the public in the middle of a pandemic. If there were questions about a voter’s identity or eligibility to vote, the ballot was treated as provisional and not counted until it was “cured.” If there were questions about who someone voted for, on a ballot, that ballot was sent to a review team that included representatives of both parties.  

There are failsafes at every stage of our elections process — except the last stage: accepting the results.

So now there is another opportunity to artificially create doubt. Another opportunity to spread headlines around the right-wing media echo chamber. Probably another opportunity for somebody to raise lots of money from people who are still clinging to the idea that their candidate didn’t lose. 

We need to ensure that this does not become another opportunity for legislative opportunists to damage our freedom to vote.