Apparent fake ballot found in Georgia

[ga_girl]

Source: WSB TV

SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — State election officials say a possibly fake ballot was discovered at an early voting location in Spalding County Wednesday morning, officials confirmed to Channel 2 Action News.

A full-scale investigation is now underway about who created it and why.
...
“They identified one ballot that looked visibly different than the rest of the ballots and that appears to be a fake ballot,” Evans said. “They alerted us and we have opened and are conducting an investigation into the matter.”
...
The Spalding scanner showed 1,521 ballots had been entered into the system, but Spalding election officials showed only 1,520 voters checked in.

Read more: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/ga-election-officials-investigating-after-suspected-fake-ballot-discovered-early-voting-location/BSOEOTUZGRAHHMO3JUKFWGXC5Y/

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Attempting to sow discord about election integrity?

[Walleye]

1. Expect more dirty tricks, Roger Stone is still on the loose

[calimary]

2. This!

Why isn’t that bastard in custody?

[Walleye]

3. I'm sure he's a busy boy doing his best to screw up this election

This is why we can’t have nice things

[gab13by13]

12. DOJ better be ready

because this is just the tip of the iceberg. Also look for foreign governments to claim interference even if they didn't.

The goal is to make people believe that our elections are not legitimate, and it goes way back to when DOJ allowed a pro-Trump fake Cyber Ninja company to have access to ballots, election material and equipment and voter information, all in violation of federal law and DOJ only wrote a stern letter. The Cyber Ninjas flamed the Big Lie and it spread across the country, it became the rallying cry of the attack on our Capitol.

[infullview]

4. Looks like they forgot the magnetic ink...

Most of these paper ballots have coding on them to detect fakes. The real problem is that they void the anonymous vote that may have been real. If you flood enough of these fakes in a black neighborhood then you completely skew the results. We should be very alarmed if more of these show up... Whoever is behind this idea would have to intercept real ballots, and replace them with fakes. That would take a lot of planning, with people in key post office positions to do this.

[moose65]

5. This wasn't a mail-in ballot

This happened at an Early Voting location. There was one more ballot processed than there were people who checked in.

Probably a Republican voter who was trying to show how "easy" it is to commit fraud!

And anyway, mail-in ballots aren't anonymous. You have to sign the ballot, and the election officials know who requested the ballots, at least in a lot of states - not sure about Georgia, though.

[oldsoftie]

9. Yes, in GA you have to sign the ballot return env with the actual ballot inside.

The verification is supposed to be on the outer envelope sig and verification info & then the ballots are removed.

[sybylla]

26. This would be my guess, too.

Someone copied the sample ballot and thought they could just insert it with their regular ballot.

[SouthernDem4ever]

27. In GA not only do you have to sign the ballot's return envelope

you have to put your State ID or License number on it.

[Ms. Toad]

30. Knowing who request ballots does not make them not anonymous.

A large number of people request mail-in ballots, so connecting a voter to their ballot based on knowing who requested an absentee ballot would be next to impossible.

Further, when the ballots come in, the outside envelope is used to verify the identity of the voter and is then stripped off and the ballots commingled. In most jurisdictions there is an inner anonymous envelope, which prevents accidental disclosure of the ballot contents when the identifying information is stripped off.

[moose65]

31. Yes, that's true

However, a truly “anonymous” vote happened here, in that no one had any idea who cast the vote!

[Ms. Toad]

33. They have no idea who cast the vote -

BUT - just like they do in absentee voting, they have a list of people who appeared to vote on that day. And the pool of 150 is far smaller than the pool of absentee voters in a state.

The reality is that however you vote the board of elections knows who cast ballots. Every person is verified as a legitimate voter before they are given a ballot (whether an electronic ballot or a paper one, whether in person or by mail). Most paper ballots have a number on a ballot stub - which identifies you with your ballot until you tear the stub from the ballot just before running it through the ballot reader. If you vote using an electronic ballot, the same is true of of the card you are given - the number is associated with you (and the votes you are casting until you cast the ballot by pressing the button on the machine.

This tracking until the moment the vote is cast is a safeguard to prevent things like the extra ballot. If you mess up and need a new ballot, they have to track the spoiled ballot (by number) so it doesn't show up in someone else's hands - run through the ballot reader along with their own ballot (allowing them to cast two votes).

[global1]

6. Which Party Is Said To Be Responsible For This....

fake ballot? Repugs or Dems?

Why is this one fake ballot so critical/important?

[irisblue]

7. Straw in the wind? Testing the Board of Elections security?

[nuxvomica]

8. That depends

If the votes are Democratic, it's a Republican's attempt to sow discord; if the votes are Republican, it's just regular Republican ballot fraud.

[Effete Snob]

10. Or its just an asshole looking to sow chaos

Not every stupid prank has an agenda attached to it.

There are people who get their jollies for no reason other than causing grief.

Online gaming, in fact, calls these kinds of people "griefers". They aren't trying to score a "win" for any team or themselves. They are just looking to piss people off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griefer

A griefer or bad-faith player is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game (trolling) by doing things such as destroying something another player made or built. A griefer derives pleasure primarily, or exclusively, from the act of annoying other users, and as such, is a particular nuisance in online gaming communities.

[maxsolomon]

20. In 2022, this stupid prank has an agenda attached to it.

dollars to donuts, it's a MAGAt "testing the system".

[alfredo]

23. They don't need to test, they will make up fraud claims

[maxsolomon]

25. OK, well an actual voter went to some trouble to fake a 2nd ballot.

I'd wager that was for a reason.

[alfredo]

29. While I was a poll worker

And mistake, irregularity, or entry by the precinct sheriff was called voter fraud by Republicans. Some of those were things like a political sign too close to the polling place, or the door was locked and we couldn’t gain access to set up before 6 AM.

On year we had 31 issues in our state, with only 2 were alleged voter fraud. Of course Republicans said we had 31 cases of voter fraud.

[gab13by13]

11. And so it starts, totally predictable,

and I see no indication that DOJ is prepared to deal with rat fucking that is going to happen. There are going to be claims of fraud all over the country on election day. Where is DOJ?

I watched one Senate hearing about 9 months ago where Merrick Garland said he was going to investigate all of the threats against school board members and election officials. Every Republican on the committee accused Garland of violating people's 1st Amendment rights, by the time the hearing was over Garland backed down to DOJ working with local law enforcement to prevent violence. What happens when local law enforcement is a part of the problem?

[area51]

13. +1 n/t

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. This is enormously interesting!!! Thanks gg

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. Link didn't work for me. BTW this is THIS election..duh

[Ford_Prefect]

16. This is the FIRST. It will not be the last nor the only example of electoral spoiling going on.

[Chainfire]

17. Well, hell, that means we need to turn over the Presidency to Trump....

Pack it in Joe, the smoking gun has been found...

[Merlot]

18. The new should report that it was obviously a fake and easily spotted

instead they will report it was "found."

[Bayard]

19. Is this Borowitz?

[NJCher]

22. that's what I thought at first, too

I almost didn't click on it because I read him hard copy.

However, from the above posts, we run the gamut of possibilities, to someone "testing" the system before they go full throttle on some illegitimate votes to griefers (new term for me).

It will be something to watch, for sure.

And I agree, merlot, with the way the media will probably phrase the headline. That sort of thing counts because it frames the story.

[cstanleytech]

21. Planted by far right supporters as a means to justify putting more hurdles in front of minorities?

[yardwork]

28. That's my immediate thought.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

34. Absolutely. I was surprised they didn't do more of this in 2020.

Dump a bunch of obviously fake ballots and use that as an excuse to stop counting and/or throw it back to the States.

[chowder66]

24. And yet it was caught. Good job officials!!!!

[moondust]

32. CNN covered this.

Last edited Fri Oct 21, 2022, 11:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Makes me wonder what GQPers will do when they "discover" the fake ballots that they planted? Is it just to screw up the works and cast more doubt on elections, "proving" that they haven't been lying? To provide an excuse to have their co-conspiring legislatures declare the winner because elections can't be trusted?