A top Georgia investigator disputed claims about “mystery ballots” showing up in security footage at an arena in Fulton County on election night.
Frances Watson, the chief investigator for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, submitted a sworn affidavit to federal court late Sunday that disputed what President Trump’s legal team and allies have argued was evidence that election officials sent election supervisors home before they began counting thousands of fake ballots for President-elect Joe Biden, and the video shows briefcases full of ballots being pulled out from underneath a table.
Watson’s affidavit was submitted as part of the lawsuit filed by attorney Sidney Powell, who is no longer affiliated with the Trump legal team, alleging voting irregularities in Georgia.
Watson wrote his “investigation and review of the entire security footage revealed that there were no mystery ballots that were brought in from an unknown location and hidden under tables as had been reported by some.”
Watson also said his investigation “revealed that the incident initially reported as a water leak late in the evening on November 3rd was actually a urinal that had overflowed early in the morning of November 3rd, and did not affect the counting of votes by Fulton County later that evening.”
After interviewing witnesses and viewing the security footage from the arena, Watson said the investigation “discovered that observers and media were not asked to leave. They simply left on their own when they saw one group of workers, whose job was only to open envelopes and who had completed that task, also leave.”
Boxes that were packed with ballots that had already been opened but not counted, Watson said, were sealed and placed under the table.
“This was done because employees thought that they were done for the night and were closing up and ready to leave. When the counting continued into later in the night, those boxes were opened so that the ballots inside could then be counted,” he added.
Watson said the investigation remains active.
Earlier in the day, Georgia filed a motion to dismiss Powell’s lawsuit. “Much like the mythological ‘kraken’ monster after which plaintiffs have named this lawsuit, their claims of election fraud and malfeasance belong more to the kraken’s realm of mythos than they do to reality,” the filing said.
Rudy Giuliani, who is leading Trump’s legal team and tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, said in an interview that they are banking on convincing the legislatures in Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona that the popular votes that went for Biden in these states were flawed and therefore they would select electors who would cast their Electoral College votes for Trump. Giuliani also said he hoped to overturn the contest in Wisconsin via the courts.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who has called on Secretary of State Bradford Raffensperger to conduct a signature audit while resisting pressure from Trump to overturn Biden’s victory, rejected a call by lawmakers on Sunday to call a special session in an effort to override the results.
“Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change that process for the Nov. 3rd election would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoined by the courts, resulting in a long legal dispute and no short-term resolution,” he said in a joint statement with Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
All this is playing out as Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, two Republicans, are facing runoff elections in Georgia early next month.
