Claim: Thousands of fraudulent votes in Georgia cast by felons, dead, underage voters

[Tim Chow]

A criminal complaint in Georgia, filed in the Fulton County Superior Court by State Republican Chairman David Shafer and President Donald Trump on Friday, December 4, alleged that tens of thousands of votes cast in the presidential election were fraudulent. After being initially rejected and then appealed to the state Supreme Court, the Court unanimously declined to hear the case, saying that "petitioners have not shown that this is one of those extremely rare cases that would invoke our original jurisdiction." In particular, the claims of fraudulent votes were never examined in detail by the court.

The types of alleged fraudulent votes are quite varied. Here is a summary, reproduced from the Federalist article on the lawsuit.

• 2,560 felons
• 66,247 underage registrants
• 2,423 people who were not on the state's voter rolls
• 4,926 voters who had registered in another state after they registered in Georgia, making them ineligible
• 395 people who cast votes in another state for the same election
• 15,700 voters who had filed a national change of address forms without re-registering
• 40,279 people who had moved counties without re-registering
• 1,043 people who claimed the physical impossibility of a P.O. Box as their address
• 98 people who registered after the deadline
• 10,315 people who were deceased on election day (8,718 of whom had been registered as dead before their votes were accepted)
• 305,701 people who, according to state records, applied for an absentee ballot past the deadline (more than 180 days before the election)
• 92 voters whose absentee ballots were cast before they even requested one
• 13 people who weren't registered voted with absentee ballots
• 2,664 absentee ballots were mailed from elections offices before the earliest date permitted by law
• 50 peoples' absentee ballots were counted despite being returned and accepted before the earliest allowed date
• 2 people whose ballot applications were rejected voted anyway
• 217 people who voted by absentee ballots were "applied for, issued, and received all on the same day."

I have searched around quite a bit but have not been able to find any evidence to back up these numbers. The filing itself refers to "Exhibit 2" and "Exhibit 3" for supporting documentation, but I have not been able to find copies of these Exhibits. It would be nice if someone could dig up these Exhibits and make them public.

Peter Navarro has released a report entitled, The Immaculate Deception, which among other things cites this lawsuit (see Footnote 28). The Navarro report in turn has been reproduced in a 270-page document release by Sidney Powell. So these claims of fraudulent votes are continuing to circulate, but without (as far as I can see) any supporting evidence.

 

[deirdre]

but I have not been able to find copies of these Exhibits

it sounds like it has specific names and addresses etc, so im guessing it would be illegal to share that information

Article:

Dec. 11, 2020 at 12:17 a.m. UTC
When Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen (D) reviewed a list of voters who President Trump's campaign claimed cast illegal ballots in the state, three names caught her eye: two friends and a constituent.

For days, Nguyen pored over public records, spoke with voters by phone and even knocked on doors in person to vet the Trump list. She found that it included dozens of voters who were eligible to vote in Georgia — along with their full names and home addresses.

Source: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lfGK0D42zkkJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/heres-what-happened-when-a-georgia-lawmaker-scrutinized-the-trump-campaigns-list-of-allegedly-illegal-votes/2020/12/10/1400d628-3b06-11eb-bc68-96af0daae728_story.html+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

 

[Mick West]

No Exhibit 2, but this Twitter Thread points out numerous errors in the complaint.

Source: https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr/status/1336374200647487488

 

[Mick West]

In particular, the claims of fraudulent votes were never examined in detail by the court.

They were examined by the the State of Georgia:

Article:

According to the Trump campaign, 2,056 felons still under sentence in the state of Georgia voted illegally. State officials said they are investigating a total of 74 potential felons who may have cast ballots.

The Trump campaign claims that some 66,000 underage people voted during the 2020 general election. The state says the actual number of underage voters was zero.

"There were four people who requested a ballot before they turned 18," Secretary of State counsel Ryan Germany told the state House Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "And they all turned 18 prior to November 3 -- which means they're allowed to vote."

According to Germany, the Trump campaign complained that 2,423 unregistered people were allowed to vote. He said the actual number was zero.

Germany said that the Trump campaign complained that 30,000 people voted in Georgia and another state. Investigators have only found three such voters.

He said that the Trump campaign complained that 10,000 dead people voted during the general election. Germany said they have found a total of two.

"Usually, that's somebody who died recently, and a family member votes with (the name)," Germany said. "That handful of instances are consistent with what we see in every election. Again, it's not ok,."

He added the cases would be referred to the state election board for possible penalties.

The Trump campaign also complained about absentee drop boxes, where they insisted that alleged "ballot harvesting" took place, by people illegally dropping off "armloads" of ballots. Germany says video reviews found none.

Source: https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/elections/fraud-claims-debunked/85-d0b5b303-3312-4f43-a6ba-43a3d7bdcaa7

 

[Mendel]

"petitioners have not shown that this is one of those extremely rare cases that would invoke our original jurisdiction."

This means that the Supreme Court usually reviews decisions by lower courts; it doesn't have the power to try just any issue on its own except in rare circumstances (e.g. the SCOTUS has original jurisdiction for conflicts between states because there is no other court that would be appropriate for that). Why was this case not tried before a lower court?

Article:

Published: Dec. 13, 2020 at 6:24 PM MEZ
The suit - similar to other Trump team legal challenges, which made baseless allegations of widespread fraud in Georgia's presidential election - was initially filed Dec. 4, then rejected by the Fulton County Superior Court because the paperwork was improperly completed and it lacked the appropriate filing fees.

The case was subsequently appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, asking justices to consider the case before Monday's meeting of the Electoral College. In a brief order, justices wrote that "petitioners have not shown that this is one of those extremely rare cases that would invoke our original jurisdiction."

Source: https://www.kwqc.com/2020/12/13/georgia-high-court-rejects-latest-trump-election-appeal/

 

[Tim Chow]

The recent phone call between Trump and Raffensperger (among other people) provides some additional insight. Though the numbers mentioned in the phone call do not always match the numbers in the Trump v. Raffensperger document mentioned above, many of the claims are very similar. For example, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer on the Trump team, raised the issue of voters who had moved out of Georgia. Here was the response (I'm using EX tags as the posting guidelines suggest, because I don't know how to do the "Article/Source" format that I see other people using here):

(28:28) Those numbers that we got, that Ms. Mitchell was just saying...they're not accurate. Every one we've been through are people that lived in Georgia, moved to a different state, but then moved back to Georgia legitimately ... They moved back in years ago. This was not like something just before the election. So there's something about that data that's just not accurate.

Cleta Mitchell also admitted that their own numbers were unconfirmed and that Raffensperger's office had access to more information. So unless one posits that Raffensperger's office is incompetent or acting in bad faith, the numbers they're reporting should be more reliable than the numbers presented by the Trump team.

(20:00) If you read our petition, it said that we took the names and birth years and we had certain information available to us. We have asked from your office for records that only you have. ... There's a universe of people who have the same name and same birth year and died. But we don't have the records you have. And one of the things that we have been suggesting, formally and informally, for weeks now, is for you to make available to us the records that would be necessary to confirm...

(50:27) You have data and records that we don't have access to. And you keep telling us, and making public statements, that you investigated this and, you know, nothing to see here. But we don't know about that. All we know is what you tell us. What I don't understand is why wouldn't it be in everyone's best interests to try to get to the bottom, compare the numbers...to try to be able to get to the truth...because we don't have any way of confirming what you're telling us.

 

[Mendel]

Your last two quotes (from 20:00 and 50:27) are Cleta Mitchell speaking, that is one of Trump's lawyers.

And one of the things that we have been suggesting, formally and informally, for weeks now, is for you to make available to us the records that would be necessary to confirm...

Georgia's Ryan Germany points out in response:

Germany: Well, that's not the case sir. There are things that you guys are entitled to get. And there's things that under the law, we are not allowed to give out.

So that's why the Trump campaign doesn't have all of the records. This type of personal data is legally protected and can't be passed around.

 

[Patricio]

A criminal complaint in Georgia, filed in the Fulton County Superior Court by State Republican Chairman David Shafer and President Donald Trump on Friday, December 4, alleged that tens of thousands of votes cast in the presidential election were fraudulent. After being initially rejected and then appealed to the state Supreme Court, the Court unanimously declined to hear the case, saying that "petitioners have not shown that this is one of those extremely rare cases that would invoke our original jurisdiction." In particular, the claims of fraudulent votes were never examined in detail by the court.

The types of alleged fraudulent votes are quite varied. Here is a summary, reproduced from the Federalist article on the lawsuit.

I have searched around quite a bit but have not been able to find any evidence to back up these numbers. The filing itself refers to "Exhibit 2" and "Exhibit 3" for supporting documentation, but I have not been able to find copies of these Exhibits. It would be nice if someone could dig up these Exhibits and make them public.

Peter Navarro has released a report entitled, The Immaculate Deception, which among other things cites this lawsuit (see Footnote 28). The Navarro report in turn has been reproduced in a 270-page document release by Sidney Powell. So these claims of fraudulent votes are continuing to circulate, but without (as far as I can see) any supporting evidence.

Every claim coming from Republicans along these lines has turned up empty. Anyone can claim anything, but proving it in a court of law is another matter.