© Megan Varner/Getty ImagesMedia crews film while election workers process absentee ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Nov. 2, 2020.
"The events at the State Farm Arena are particularly disturbing because they demonstrated intent on the part of election workers to exclude the public from viewing the counting of ballots, an intentional disregard for the law. The number of votes that could have been counted in that length of time was sufficient to change the results of the presidential election and the senatorial contests," the report from the state Senate's Election Law Study Subcommittee chairman reads.
"Furthermore, there appears to be coordinated illegal activities by election workers themselves who purposely placed fraudulent ballots into the final election totals."
Workers counted mail-in ballots at the arena. According to surveillance footage and witness testimony from Election Day, workers stopped counting ballots around 10:30 p.m. but resumed after observers and media left.
A spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: "The report makes rash conclusions based on a one-sided presentation of conspiracy theories, poorly assembled data and conjecture. Of the many courts that have reviewed this same jumble of misinformation, none have found one shred of it to be credible. It is disappointing that the members of the study committee let their political allegiance cloud their judgment when dispassionate analysis by the courts have determined the allegations to be nonsense."
Comment: More correctly, the courts have refused to look at any of the evidence, choosing instead to reject lawsuits because of issues of standing, or other procedural side-steps. Raffensperger is worried the truth will come out, plain and simple.
Gabriel Sterling, an official who works in Raffensperger's office, has acknowledged that there was an 82-minute period that night when no monitor was present. The office has blamed media and observers for leaving after the announcement that counting was stopping for the night.
The Georgia Election Law Study Subcommittee is part of the state Senate Judiciary Committee. According to subcommittee Chairman William Ligon, a Republican, the report hasn't been formally approved by either the subcommittee or the committee.
Sen. Elena Parent, a Democrat on the subcommittee, told The Epoch Times via email: "As a member of the committee, the report was never shared with me. There was no vote or consideration by the committee of the report. It doesn't represent anything more than the Chairman's take as a single legislator."
The other four members of the subcommittee didn't immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment. They are all listed on the report, although only Ligon's signature is on it.
READ THE REPORT HERE
The report notes that scores of witnesses and experts testified about irregularities and fraud allegations during a public hearing earlier this month.
In summary, legislators wrote, the general election "was chaotic and any reported results must be viewed as untrustworthy."
Lawmakers heard evidence about proper chain of custody protocols being violated, about fraudulent ballots likely being introduced into the pool of ballots being counted, about pristine ballots whose origins looked suspicious, and about unsecured ballots.
"A great deal of testimony supported evidence of a coordinated effort to prevent a transparent process of observing the counting of ballots during the absentee ballot opening period and on election night. Witnesses testified to hostility to Republican poll workers during the recount — directional signage was unavailable, doors were locked, and Republican poll watchers were sent home early or given menial assignments," the report states.
"Monitors throughout the state were often kept at an unreasonably long distance — some social distancing was understandable, but monitors were blocked from having the visual ability to see what was written on the ballots or to have any meaningful way to check the counting or to double-check that what was counted was actually assigned to the right candidate."
Two of the poll observers who testified were later terminated by Fulton County. Raffensperger has called for them to be rehired; Fulton County officials didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Among the recommendations outlined in the report are that unqualified voters should be purged from voter rolls; violations of state law should be prosecuted; forensic audits of ballots and machines should be carried out; and the state legislature should consider moving to choose the slate of electors.
Ligon led a push to convene a special session of the legislature to consider taking back the power to appoint electors, but that effort didn't garner the required support. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, can also call a special session, but has thus far refused.
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