The saga of the Nov. 3rd Georgia general election continued yesterday with two state Senate hearings that heard evidence and sworn witness testimony of voter fraud in a state where presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are separated by a thin vote margin.
While Trump attorney Rudolph Guiliani dramatically testified before a Senate subcommittee about fraud, it was Atlanta attorney Ray Smith (the local counsel working with Guiliani) who presented perhaps the most jarring evidence that cries for investigation. Consider Smith’s numbers:
· 2,056 felons voted illegally
· 66,248 under 18 voted
· 2,423 weren’t registered at all
· 1,043 used a PO Box
· 4,926 voted past the registration date
· 10,315 died before the election
· 395 voted in two states
· 15,700 moved out of state
· 40,279 changed their county and didn’t re-register
Remember, too, that last Sunday night Judge Timothy Batten impounded all Dominion voting machines in Georgia for ten days as investigations continue.
In light of all this, there are rumblings from the Republican voter base who feel Georgia should not certify a final vote yet. In this context, President Trump recently declared that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “got played” by Democrat powerhouse Stacey Abrams when he agreed to a legal settlement decree last March with her and other Democrats to weaken absentee ballot signature verification. The settlement of that lawsuit , the Republican lawyers say, loosened restrictions on how to apply for an absentee ballot and how to verify one’s identity on an email ballot application. That, together with the tightened requirements for when absentee ballots can be thrown out, along with a loose chain of ballot custody, created a recipe for fraud.
Another product of yesterday’s hearings was a video that seems to show workers in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena hauling suitcases with ballots from under a table after GOP observers, witnesses and the media were told to leave—and then those ballots were being counted into the night. The Secretary of State’s office says the whole video needs to be taken into context and the suitcases were really official ballot carrier boxes.
In any event, as GOP lawyers point out, Georgia law O.C.G.A. § 21-2-483(b) flatly states:
“All proceedings at the tabulating center and precincts shall be open to the view of the public, but no person except one employed and designated for the purpose by the superintendent or the superintendent’s authorized deputy shall touch any ballot or ballot container.”
