As part of an ongoing effort by some Republicans and Trump supporters to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, you might have heard something about efforts to conduct a forensic audit on the ballots to prove fraud did — or did not — occur.
In Arizona, the state Senate successfully sued to get access to Maricopa County’s 2.1 million ballots, even after two post-election audits were conducted by a Republican-controlled board that confirmed Biden’s victory. A partisan third-party group has been “auditing” the votes in recent weeks.
Former Department of Homeland Security official Matt Masterson told NPR that Arizona’s review is “performance art,” a “clown show,” and definitely “a waste of taxpayer money” that threatens confidence in democracy and is not an actual audit. A conservative radio host in Phoenix and ardent Trump supporter has begun making similar remarks, backing away from his previous support of the audit and now summing it up as “the sideshow at the state fair.”
Now, prominent Republicans in Georgia, ranging from newly reelected party chairman David Shafer to both gubernatorial primary candidates seeking to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp, are calling for Georgia’s ballots to go down a similar “forensic audit” path after the 5 million presidential votes were already counted three times, including an audit, before the results were certified.
Many of the lingering claims about Georgia’s elections come from a dramatic rise in mail-in absentee ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to some genuine questions about a relatively unfamiliar part of the elections process. But much of the narrative around alleged voter fraud has been driven by baseless accusations of wrongdoing — and seemingly willful misrepresentations of steps officials take to keep ballots secure.
An ongoing lawsuit in Fulton County seeks to unseal more than 145,000 absentee ballots only and inspect them for evidence of counterfeit or fraudulent ballots, but that is currently on hold after all of the defendants in the case filed motions to dismiss.
But based on a GPB News analysis of Georgia election rules and practices, extensive reporting on Georgia’s new election system and interviews with elections experts, there is no way to “forensically audit” absentee ballots or votes printed out by ballot-marking devices, and numerous safeguards are in place to verify only legal votes are counted. Additionally, any “audit” done at this point could not alter the outcome or any election results, unlike pre-certification post-election audits many states conduct.
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Article URL : https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/06/07/heres-how-georgia-could-conduct-forensic-audit-of-novembers-election