Operatives working within the election system of a key battleground state were caught shredding voter applications, and an investigation is already underway.
Fulton County, the most populous county in the battleground state of Georgia, is facing yet another scandal. Officials have fired two workers who are accused of shredding paper voter registration applications, according to a county statement released on October 11th.
These two election operatives allegedly checked out batches of applications for processing, but instead of fully processing them, they chose to shred some of the forms. Other employees reported their actions to the supervisor, and the two were fired the same day.
The deadline to register to vote for the November 2nd election was on October 4th. Voters will be deciding on a new mayor, city council members, and school board members. According to the county statement, the applications that were shredded were received in the past two weeks.
The actions of these two election operatives were reported to the secretary of state’s office of investigations by Fulton County Registration and Elections Director Rick Barron. The issue was also reported by Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts to the county District Attorney, Fani Willis.
“Elections are the most important function of our government,” Pitts said in a statement. “We have committed to transparency and integrity.”
While the county statement does not indicate how many applications were shredded, but a press release from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stated that the number was approximately 300 applications.
Raffensperger also announced in the statement that the secretary of state’s office has officially launched an investigation, and he has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to do the same.
“After 20 years of documented failure in Fulton County elections, Georgians are tired of waiting to see what the next embarrassing revelation will be,” the secretary of state said in the release. “The Department of Justice needs to take a long look at what Fulton County is doing and how their leadership disenfranchises Fulton voters through incompetence and malfeasance. The voters of Georgia are sick of Fulton County’s failures.”
Secretary Raffensperger Calls on Department of Justice to Investigate Allegations of Fulton County Shredding Applicationshttps://t.co/qpOSwL1BYd pic.twitter.com/c7acJresBh
— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) October 11, 2021
The statement from Fulton County also noted that any resident who tries to vote in the upcoming election that is found to not be registered to vote will be given a provisional ballot, and an investigation will follow.
