Fulton County election workers examine ballots while vote counting on November 5, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia ( AFP / Tami Chappell)

Debunked Georgia voter fraud allegations resurface online

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 21, 2023 at 16:21
4 min read
By Daniel FUNKE, AFP USA

More than three years after Georgia voters helped elect US President Joe Biden, conservative politicians and media personalities are claiming Governor Brian Kemp's office has found new evidence of more than 17,000 fraudulent votes that could have tipped the results. This is false; Kemp's office and other state officials refuted the claim, and several recounts and audits have confirmed Donald Trump's defeat in the state.

"BREAKING: Georgia Gov. Kemp's legal staff has notified Ga Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that 17,852 invalid 2020 votes were counted in Fulton County, GA, alone," says Leading Report, an account that AFP has fact-checked numerous times, in a December 15, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post and a corresponding article titled "2020 Georgia Fraud Exposed" have accumulated thousands of interactions. Rob Cunningham, a self-described "author, veteran" and "philosopher," makes similar allegations in another December 15 X post.

Both Cunningham and Leading Report cite a video in which a Georgia resident named Joe Rossi claims there were "17,852 votes counted that do not have a corresponding ballot image associated with them." They also shared a screenshot of a supposed public meeting notice to address the discrepancy.

Screenshot from the Leading Report website taken December 19, 2023

Screenshot from X taken December 19, 2023

Republican politicians and commentators such as US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump Jr amplified the claims, rehashing long-debunked conspiracy theories that Biden's victory in the historically conservative state was the result of voter fraud.

"The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen," said Kemp in an August 2023 post (archived here) refuting allegations from former president Trump, who backed the Republican governor's 2018 campaign.

"For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward -- under oath -- and prove anything in a court of law."

That has not changed, despite the claims circulating online.

"Retelling the same lies for three years does not make them true, even when citing bogus online blogs," Kemp adviser Cody Hall was quoted as saying in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) December 18, 2023 article (archived here).

"The moon landing was real, Bigfoot does not roam the forests of North America and the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen."

Misrepresented letter

Alexandra Hardin, a paralegal with the Georgia State Election Board (SEB), told AFP in a December 19 email that the body has only received two letters from Kemp -- neither of which verifies claims of more than 17,000 "invalid" votes in 2020.

The letters, one sent in November 2021 and the other in July 2022, ask the State Election Board to look into Rossi's allegations about Georgia's election results. The latter is signed by Evan Meyers, Kemp's deputy executive counsel.

"The Office of the Governor does not have the authority to investigate election matters; such authority resides with the State Elections Board," he wrote. "I ask that you contact Mr Rossi and review his claims to determine whether any consideration of such claims by the Board is warranted."

The body was scheduled December 19, 2023 to discuss a case "recommended for referral to the attorney general's office" about 2020 tabulator results in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold home to Atlanta (archived here).

But Hardin told AFP the case was "continued from today's meeting and will be heard at the next SEB meeting," adding that she "cannot speak to investigations that are ongoing or have not yet been presented to and disposed of by the Board."

Citing a statement from board member Sara Ghazal, 11Alive News reported the case "focuses on apparent discrepancies between the initial recount totals reported by Fulton County on December 2, 2020, and the corrected vote totals released the following day." The Atlanta TV station noted there "is also a related case question regarding ballot images" (archived here).

Audits confirmed results

While the source of the figure shared online is unclear, it appears to reflect an error officials reported during a recount and subsequently corrected during a verification process known as reconciliation.

Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the Georgia secretary of state, told 11Alive that Fulton County submitted an incorrect number in early December 2020 that was off by about 17,000 before correcting the totals.

Biden beat Trump in Georgia by some 12,000 votes (archived here and here). The state initially certified that result November 20, 2020 and confirmed it after a recount in December (archived here).

The Georgia secretary of state's office has conducted several audits -- none of which turned up evidence of widespread fraud.

"It's 2023, we are still dealing (with) the lies," said Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the secretary of state, in a December 18 X post refuting allegations of more than 17,000 "invalid" ballots (archived here).

AFP contacted the secretary of state and governor's offices, as well as the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, for additional comment. Fact-checking outlets Lead Stories and Check Your Fact have debunked similar claims.

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about US politics -- including election fraud conspiracy theories -- here.