Commentary: Trump’s Claims of Election Misconduct Were Never Adjudicated in Georgia

by George Rasley

In a post to his locals.com page Georgia attorney Robert Barnes took subscribers on a little trip down memory lane about the 2020 Georgia election challenges.

As Mr. Barnes explained, detailed affidavits filed by the Trump campaign established the veracity of the claims. Short version: Constitutionally unqualified voters cast Constitutionally unqualified ballots that were Constitutionally unqualified canvassed and counted in far excess of the margin of victory – indeed, more than 10 times the margin of victory. Unlawfully, Fulton County courts blocked the case from ever being heard. (You can read the entire complaint through this link to a 2020 FOX News article.)

According to the authorities cited in the Petition filed on behalf of the Trump campaign and Elector David J. Schafer, the Georgia Supreme Court has made clear that it is not incumbent upon Petitioners to show how voters casting irregular ballots would have voted had their ballots been regular. Petitioners “only [have] to show that there were enough irregular ballots to place in doubt the result.” Mead v. Sheffield, 278 Ga. 268, 271, 601 S.E.2d 99, 101 (2004) (citing Howell v. Fears, 275 Ga. 627, 628, 571 S.E.2d 392, 393 (2002)).

The Georgia Election Code in O.C.G.A. § 21-2-522 provides the means for a candidate in a federal election to contest the results of said election based on:

1. Misconduct, fraud, or irregularity by any primary or election official or officials sufficient to change or place in doubt the result;

2. When the defendant is ineligible for the nomination or office in dispute;

3. When illegal votes have been received or legal votes rejected at the polls sufficient to change or place in doubt the result;

4. For any error in counting the votes or declaring the result of the primary or election, if such error would change the results; or

5. For any other cause which shows that another was the person legally nominated, elected, or eligible to compete in a run-off primary or election.

The results of an election may be set aside when a candidate has “clearly established a violation of election procedures and has demonstrated that the violation has placed the result of the election in doubt.” Martin v. Fulton Cty. Bd. of Registration & Elections, 307 Ga. 193-94, 835 S.E.2d 245, 248 (2019) (quoting Hunt v. Crawford, 270 GA 7, 10, 507 S.E.2d 723 (1998) (emphasis added).

The Petition filed by the Trump campaign and the other Petitioners asserted that election procedures, both on Election Day and during the subsequent recounts were clearly violated and, citing specific on the record incidents, alleged the laws of the State of Georgia governing the conduct of the Contested Election were disregarded, abandoned, ignored, altered, and otherwise violated by Respondents (including Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger and various county election officials), jointly and severally, allowing a sufficient number of illegal votes to be included in the vote tabulations, such that the results of the Contested Election are invalid, and the declaration of the presidential election in favor of Mr. Biden must be enjoined, vacated, and nullified.

The irregularities cited included, but were not limited to, 8,718 individuals recorded as having died prior to the date the State accepted their vote, at least 305,701 individuals voted who, according to State records, applied for an absentee ballot more than 180 days prior to the Contested Election.

The Petition also cited the fact that Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger had intentionally abandoned Georgia’s statutory and constitutional process for sending, receiving and signature matching absentee ballots and that statistical analysis showed between 38,250 and 45,626 ballots that should have been rejected in the Contested Election were in fact counted.

Furthermore, deliberate misinformation was used to instruct Republican poll watchers and members of the press to leave the Fulton County counting center whereby Republican poll watchers and members of the press left the State Farm Arena (where they had been observing the ballots being processed). Without public transparency, Fulton County Elections Officials continued to process, handle, and transfer many thousands of ballots contrary to the Georgia statutory requirement that the counting be done in public before representatives of the candidates and parties.

And finally, Secretary of State Raffensberger refused on five separate occasions to comply with requests to produce the signatures used to request absentee ballots and to confirm the identities of those individuals requesting such ballots in the contested election is a violation of O.G.C.A. § 21 2 586(a). Failure to comply with any such request by the Secretary of State or an employee of his or her office shall [constitute] a misdemeanor.” O.G.C.A. § 21-2-586(a), but of course neither Raffensberger, nor any employee were ever tried, let alone convicted.

The bottom line: Trump filed a detailed election contest in Georgia, verified under oath with documented sworn testimony, showing over 100,000 illegal votes were included in the 2020 election certification and never got a hearing, his only recourse was to follow the Constitution and take his complaints to Congress, the ultimate finder of fact when Electors are contested.

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George Rasley is the CEO and Editor of ConservativeHQ.
Photo “Donald Trump” by Trump White House Archived. Background Photo “Election Day” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.