Still no chain of custody for 355,000 Georgia ballots

FPI / April 11, 2021

Chain of custody documentation has still not been provided for hundreds of thousands of absentee vote by mail ballots that were placed in Georgia drop boxes during the 2020 presidential election, a report noted.

Five months after the election, Georgia election officials have yet to produce the documentation, the Georgia Star News reported on Thursday.

The Georgia Secretary of State's office reported 1.3 million absentee vote-by-mail ballots were cast in the 2020 election. The Georgia Star News report noted that polling performed by John McLaughlin & Associates suggests that 600,000 of those ballots were placed in drop boxes throughout the state.

The Star News in December filed Open Records requests to Georgia's 159 counties in an effort to procure copies of the ballot transfer documentation. As of Thursday, the outlet has only received chain of custody documentation from 59 counties.

Based on the estimated 600,000 votes placed in drop boxes statewide, the outlet reports that it has yet to receive documentation for 355,918, or 59.3 percent of those 600,000 ballots.

"According to Georgia Election Code Emergency Rule 183-1-14-0.8-.14, promulgated by the Georgia State Election Board in July 2020, but not codified by the state legislature at the time as the Georgia Constitution requires, each of Georgia's 159 counties is responsible for documenting the transfer of every batch of absentee ballots picked up at drop boxes and delivered to the county election offices with ballot transfer forms. The forms are required to be signed and dated, with time of pick up by the collection team upon pick up, and then signed, dated, with time of delivery by the registrar or designee upon receipt and accepted," the Star News reported.

Joe Biden was certified as the winner in Georgia by a margin of 11,599 votes, or less than 0.25 percent of the 5 million votes cast.

Free Press International