Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has filed a legal brief to weaken an upcoming audit of suspect ballots in his latest peculiar move to stand in the way of electoral transparency.
Activists with VoterGA have pushed to subject ballots in Fulton County, GA to a forensic audit. A judge has acquiesced to their demands, but Raffensperger is fighting to keep the ballots from being properly inspected. The amicus brief filed by Raffensperger’s office can be seen here.
“The Secretary respectfully requests that the Court permit Petitioners to inspect ballot images only, and deny Petitioners’ request to inspect and scan ballots,” the brief states.
“Petitioners have submitted to the Court a proposed order granting their Motion to Unseal, which would grant Petitioners sweeping and unprecedented access to all ballots,” the brief adds.
VoterGA claims that Raffensperger misrepresented their position in his amicus brief. They are also weary of Raffensperger’s request to provide the activists with only “ballot images” that are curated by the Secretary of State’s office, rather than the actual ballot itself.
“Ballots are then scanned through optical voting scanners selected and furnished by the State of Georgia pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 21-2-300. Once scanned, an electronic ballot image is created and stored on a memory card,” the amicus brief explains.
Using ballot images rather than the ballots themselves, Raffensperger and his goons could potentially alter the ballot information and undermine the entire audit. Considering Raffensperger’s string of dishonorable and disreputable behavior since last year’s election, vote fraud whistleblowers are certainly wise for having these concerns.
Raffensperger believes that the common people must be kept in the dark with regards to these ballots, and only government bureaucrats – who tend to investigate themselves and find they have done nothing wrong – are qualified to inspect ballots and ensure their integrity.
“The Elections Code is furthermore clear that it is only authorized elections officials who are legally permitted to verify and tabulate ballots in an election,” the amicus brief states.
“Moreover, the scanning and tabulation of ballots is only permitted under Georgia law to be conducted on the equipment selected and furnished by the State of Georgia,” the brief continues.
“Allowing Petitioners to conduct their own scan on uncertified and unknown equipment is contrary to law and would set a new and dangerous precedent going forward,” it adds.
Raffensperger also argues in the brief that even if fraud were to be discovered, it’s too late to do anything about it now anyway.
“To the extent that Petitioners are using this open records act enforcement action as a pretext for challenging the legality of ballots cast in the general election, it is too late for them to assert such a challenge now, and any request for relief would be barred by the applicable statute of limitations,” the brief states.
The Georgia Republican Party is such a disaster that it might sink the national GOP and the entire nation along with it. Raffensperger and his cronies Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan will be remembered as some of the most loathsome cowards to ever serve in public office.
