InsiderAdvantage has been told by sources for months about serious discrepancies and irregularities in the election and runoff balloting between Atlanta mayoral candidates Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mary Norwood. Now comes a ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall ordering local elections officials to release documents linked to a Secretary of State’s office investigation into the December runoff that resulted in a razor-thin win by now-Mayor Bottoms.
Schwall issued an order that county officials should grant Secretary of State’s office investigators “immediate access” to ballots, recaps, tally sheets, voter applications and other documents related to the Dec. 5 contest. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican candidate for governor who oversees Georgia elections, confirms that investigators requested records to conduct a forensic review of the runoff.
Sources tell us the probe involves irregularities over absentee ballots in the runoff. There are also problems with provisional ballots with, in some instances, voters using post office boxes as addresses. According to sources with knowledge of the investigation, in some precincts there also appears to have been more digital votes recorded than actual people who voted.
Fulton County Board of Elections Director Richard Baron has been delaying the release of certain pertinent information in this regard, which then led to the judge’s order.
All this comes in addition to various state and federal investigations into former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration involving alleged bribery over contracts, potential violations of state sunshine laws, improper credit card spending and excessive bonuses to top administration officials.
