Debunked: 94% of Fulton County Ballots Manually Adjudicated [It's a Process all Batches go Through]

[Mick West]

https://www.c-span.org/video/?477819-1/fulton-county-georgia-election-update

The false claim that 94% of Fulton County ballots needed manual review and adjustment comes from a misunderstanding of what Richard Barron, the director of elections in Fulton County, said on Nov 4, 2020 (the day after the election). It's right at the start:

SO FAR WE HAVE SCANNED 113,130 BALLOTS. WE ADJUDICATED OVER 106,000. THOSE HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE SITE. SO THOSE RESULTS ARE ALREADY POSTED. YOU CAN SEE, LIKE WE HAVE BEEN DOING ALL DAY, WE HAVE BEEN OPENING BALLOTS. WE OPEN THEM AT THESE MACHINES, THEN THEY GO OVER TO WHERE THEY ARE FLATTENED, AND THEN THEY GO OVER TO THE SCANNER. IT IS A TIME-CONSUMING PROCESS. ONCE THEY GET TO THE SCANNER, THERE IS A VOTE REVIEW PANEL OVER THERE, AND WE ARE ADJUDICATING THEM FROM THERE. THE ONLY BALLOTS THAT ARE ADJUDICATED ARE IF WE HAVE A BALLOT IN WHICH THERE IS SOME QUESTION AS TO HOW THE COMPUTER READS IT. SO THE VOTE REVIEW PANEL THEN DETERMINES VOTER INTENT.

106,000 out of 113,130 is indeed 94%. So does that mean that 94% of all ballots needed some kind of manual review, with the potential for altering them? No. The numbers refer to the total ballots in the batches. ALL the ballots are in batches, and ALL batches go through adjudication. Adjudication at a ballot level only refers to the few (around 1% or fewer) ballots that are flagged during scanning as needing manual review. Barron Explains further:

00:04:16
WE WILL END UP GETTING TO THE TOTAL, WHICH IS ABOVE 142,000. WHAT TAKES THE MOST TIME IS GETTING THEM OFF -- BECAUSE THE CUTTERS AND EXTRACTORS HAVE TO CUT THROUGH TWO ENVELOPES, SO YOU RUN IT TWICE. THEN IT GOES OVER TO THE FLANDERS. -- FLATTENERS. THAT IS A MANUAL PROCESS THERE. WE ARE UP TO 106,000, UP FROM 74,000 YESTERDAY. ON OUR WAY TO SOMEWHERE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF 142,000. [INDISCERNIBLE] CAN I WHAT? NO. YOU CAN'T PUBLISH A BATCH UNTIL THAT BATCH GOES THROUGH ADJUDICATION. ANY BALLOTS IN THERE THAT ARE FLAGGED TO BE ADJUDICATED BY THE VOTE REVIEW PANEL -- THOSE HAVE TO BE DEALT WITH BEFORE YOU CAN PUBLISH THAT BATCH. SO THE VOTE REVIEW PANEL WILL GO THROUGH AND SEE ANY CONTEST ON A BALLOT THAT HAS SOME QUESTION MARK. THE VOTE REVIEW PANEL THEN DECIDES VOTER INTENT.

Note the key phrase there again: "YOU CAN'T PUBLISH A BATCH UNTIL THAT BATCH GOES THROUGH ADJUDICATION. ANY BALLOTS IN THERE THAT ARE FLAGGED TO BE ADJUDICATED BY THE VOTE REVIEW PANEL -- THOSE HAVE TO BE DEALT WITH BEFORE YOU CAN PUBLISH THAT BATCH."

Adjudication is a process that ALL BATCHES go through after scanning. So when he says: "SO FAR WE HAVE SCANNED 113,130 BALLOTS. WE ADJUDICATED OVER 106,000", that means there are still batches of ballots that have not been through the adjudication process.

The adjudication process is simply the manual review of any flagged ballots in that batch.