Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp called on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to order a signature audit of votes after the release of video footage appears to show poll workers in Fulton County processing ballots in the middle of the night with no observers.
Speaking to Fox News, Governor Brian Kemp said, “I think it should be done. I think especially with what we saw today, it raises more questions. There needs to be transparency on that.”
The video he refers to was presented by the Trump campaign during a hearing this Thursday. The surveillance footage was filmed on Election Day, inside Georgia’s largest vote-counting center.
A lawyer who volunteered for the Trump campaign testified in the hearing.
“According to the witnesses, the Republican observers, there is the lady who has blonde braids, who comes out to announce ‘we’re going to stop counting, everyone go home,’” said Jackie Pick.
After the Republican observers left, four poll workers stayed behind.
“And they will continue counting unobserved, unsupervised, not in public view, as your statute requires, until about one in the morning,” said Pick.
At around 11 p.m., the workers pulled out boxes of ballots from a table covered with cloth.
“So what are these ballots doing there separate from all the other ballots? And why are they only counting them whenever the place is cleared out with no witnesses?” asked Pick.
Pick added that according to the footage, ballots are usually stored in the corner or come through the front door, it’s an unusual practice for them to be put under a covered table.
She said each machine can process about 3,000 ballots an hour, and there are multiple machines in the room, which raises another question.
“So you do the math, how many ballots went through those machines in those two hours when there was no one there to supervise to be present consistent with your statutes and rules, to supervise the tabulation? We believe that could easily be and probably is certainly beyond the margin of victory in this race. Because if only three scanners working for two hours, right? That’s 18,000 ballots that went through,” said Pick.
Currently, Biden leads Trump by less than 12,000 votes in Georgia.
It’s unclear if the votes tabulated without supervision were for Trump or Biden.
Two election officials in Georgia disputed some claims from the Trump campaign. They alleged no one asked the poll watchers to leave or stay, but didn’t clarify why the ballots were pulled out from the covered table after the poll watchers were cleared.
