Election data experts claim that about 35,000 Georgia voters cast their ballots in the wrong jurisdiction in 2020, but Georgia’s top elections official has not responded to requests for an investigation.
Mark Davis, president of Georgia-based Data Productions, has been asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office to investigate the data since May 2021. Davis said he looked into Georgia’s 2021 and 2022 elections again earlier this month after finding evidence of similar problems.
“The same thing will happen again in 2024,” Davis, who won a legal victory against Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Stacey Abrams, earlier this year, told the Daily Signal. . “I first brought this to the State Board of Elections in 2002. You can’t solve a problem unless you admit you have a problem.”
“The secretary of state doesn’t want to address this because it happened on his watch,” he said of Raffensperger. “I don’t know why he would act like that. It happened in front of everyone.”
Georgia is expected to be one of the closest states in the 2024 presidential election. In 2020, Joe Biden won the state by 11,000 votes over Donald Trump.
Davis, who won a legal victory earlier this year against Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Stacey Abrams, analyzed voting records based on data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office and the U.S. Postal Service. did. He was talking about affidavit data used by the Trump campaign in contesting the results of the 2020 Georgia election.
Davis provided the Daily Signal with the latest numbers as of February. They found that of the 34,869 voters who voted in the wrong jurisdiction, 4,696 who voted at a previous address in 2020 are currently registered at a new address or have a driver’s license that reflects a Postal Service change of address form. This indicates that it has been confirmed that the person has the certification information. .
In May 2021, Davis’ analysis of voting and postal records found that a total of 10,018 Georgia voters voted in 2020 using their old address, but their voter registration or driver’s license information does not reflect the new address. It was found to be consistent with. In other words, according to Davis’ analysis, there are now 14,714 confirmed voters who voted illegally at their old address but whose registration or driver’s license information matches their change of address notification. Become.
“As discussed on Friday, attached is a file of 34,869 records that we would like the Secretary of State’s office to review regarding residency issues related to the November general election,” Davis wrote on May 10, 2021. in an email to Chief Operating Officer Gabe Sterling. Raffensperger’s office several months after the election results were finalized. “Many of these voters may have had the same residency issues when voting in previous elections.”
Voting from the wrong address typically occurs when you vote at a polling place assigned to your previous residence rather than your current address. Intentionally providing false information on a voter certificate is a felony under Georgia law, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Georgia law states that you can only vote in your previous jurisdiction if you moved within 30 days of the election.
Voting rules posted on the county government’s website read:
If you move outside of the county where you registered to vote within 30 days after an election, you can vote in your old precinct in that election. If she moves outside of the county in which she is registered to vote more than 30 days before the election, she will no longer be eligible to vote in her previous county of residence. You must register to vote in your new residence. New voting precincts and polling places will be assigned. Please note that if you do not register to vote by the deadline, you will not be able to vote in that election.
Davis said that aside from statewide elections, voting in the wrong county means some people are voting for offices that don’t represent them, such as sheriffs, district attorneys and state legislators. He emphasized that he meant it. He said those voters could vote to increase county taxes they don’t pay.
Lawyers for Trump and his campaign have cited Davis’ sworn statements about the infamous phone call he made to Raffensperger and other Georgia officials on January 2, 2021, with three weeks left in his presidential term. He cited the data in the book and claimed that illegal voting took place in the November presidential election. 3 elections.
President Trump’s phone call was part of a criminal indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, against the former president and more than 15 of his aides for allegedly colluding to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“To put this in context, there are 18 people on trial for conspiracy in Fulton County, in part because of that call,” Davis told The Daily Signal. “President Trump and his lawyers did not ask the Secretary of State’s office to fabricate 11,779 votes. They asked the Secretary of State’s office to investigate illegal votes of which we were already aware.”
Davis, who has been researching voter data since 1986, said he has testified in five contested election cases.
Raffensperger’s office confirmed it would conduct an investigation in 2021, but did not respond to Raffensperger’s investigation in 2022, Davis said. He said he contacted Raffensperger, a Republican, and other officials on Feb. 1 to ask whether an investigation had been started and, if not, why not. Davis said he also looked at voter data from the 2020 election.
“I have data and supporting evidence that strongly suggests similar violations occurred in the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff elections and the 2022 general election. Unless proactive measures are taken to prevent this from happening again. , we expect more similar violations to occur in the 2024 general election,” Davis wrote in a Feb. 1 email. “If I make an effort to communicate this, will your office be willing to launch a similar investigation?”
Davis contacted State Elections Commissioner Ed Lindsay about the matter in November 2022, after reaching out to Raffensperger’s office earlier that year and receiving no response, according to the email. It is said that
“[Lindsey] “He stated that he had not seen my complaint and suggested that I resubmit through the online portal, which I did in late November 2022,” Davis wrote, adding: “I also recently inquired about that complaint, but apparently I can’t seem to find one either.”
Raffensperger’s office countered that Davis was wrong about Georgia’s law.
“Mr. Davis’ claims are inaccurate and mischaracterize Georgia law,” spokesperson Mike Hassinger told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement, adding: .
The agency had previously reviewed his “data” but disagreed with his conclusions. Georgia has rigorous list maintenance that includes review under the NCOA. [national change of address] Data within the requirements of state and federal law. Georgia law provides that anyone whose name appears on the electoral roll may deposit a ballot in the precinct in which he or she is legally registered. The information provided by Davis shows no evidence of what he falsely described as “illegal” voting.
Georgia law calls voters “electors,” so a Raffensperger spokesperson pointed to the state’s voter registration list.
Davis said that in 2015, then-Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican who is now governor, worked with the state election board to investigate a single incident in which a voter cast a ballot in the wrong county. He said he voted to report the incident to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office. .
“The Secretary of State’s Office has changed its position on the interpretation of the law,” Davis told The Daily Signal. “The facts are no different from 2015. [ballot cast in the wrong place]; now there are thousands of people. ”
Georgia election law states: “Every person whose name appears on the electoral roll held by the administrator of each electoral district, except as otherwise provided in this article, and all other persons shall deposit their ballots with the electoral district in accordance with law. shall not be permitted to do so in the district in which they are registered. ”
Davis said the law’s “unless otherwise provided” language reflects voters “who are not later found to be disqualified,” as discussed elsewhere in the law. “These are the very voters we’re talking about,” he said.
In January, Davis won a federal court ruling in a lawsuit in which he was a co-defendant along with the group True the Vote and others. Fair Fight Action had filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the vote and alleging voter intimidation.
Fair Fight Action was founded by Abrams, a twice-defeated Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled that Fair Fight Action had not presented evidence that voters were intimidated.
Davis provided his research to the Trump campaign during its challenge to the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. He testified before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Election Law. He explained his illegal voting in his affidavits on November 30, 2020, almost four weeks after the election, and on March 24, 2021, when the dispute ended.
“Mark Davis analyzed data from U.S. Postal Service Change of Address (COA) forms and compared it to voters who voted in their previous precincts,” the state Senate final report dated Dec. 3, 2020, reads. It’s dark. 14,980 out-of-state immigrants still voted in Georgia’s general election. An additional 40,279 people moved across county lines more than 30 days before the election but still voted in their original township, which is a violation of Georgia law. ”
These initial numbers immediately after the 2020 election included voters who filled out change of address forms using a post office box. Therefore, these were likely not voters who moved to another county.
Davis said the tally he sent to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office was corrected to subtract addresses that included post office boxes.
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