Peach Tree Times

Garland Favorito, co-founder of the Georgia election integrity group VoterGA, called the delay of unsealing some 145,000 absentee ballots in Fulton County a "distraction," and predicted more delays before forensics experts are permitted to inspect them.

“I’m confident the ballots will be open for a full inspection and forensics analysis,” Favorito told the Peach Tree Times. “But I’m also confident we’ll see additional delays before we do.”

Last week, Henry County Superior Court Chief Judge Brian Amero put off an inspection of the ballots, scheduled for May 28, citing filings seeking dismissal of the lawsuit that led to the ruling to unseal. 

Garland Favorito | Twitter

The judge is expected to hold a hearing on motions to dismiss Monday, June 21.

The lawsuit that led to the ruling was filed in December by four Georgia voters and led by Favorito.

Favorito, who worked on reforming Georgia election laws for 15 years, said that once the ballots are inspected “we could find nothing to up to tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots based on the affidavits filed by poll managers.”

The managers filed the affidavits after the hand count audit conducted on Nov. 14 and 15. They claimed that they saw ballots not creased from mailing, not marked by a writing instrument and not printed on normal ballot stock.

“Their findings were confirmed in two more affidavits by audit monitors who saw the ballots before Fulton election officials intervened to prevent further investigation,” VoterGA said in a statement released after Amero’s ruling to unseal the ballots.

At the May 21 hearing in which the judge permitted the unsealing of the ballots, forensics expert David Sawyer testified that batches of ballots in a risk-limiting audit performed earlier by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had a 21% error rate.

Sawyer also testified that he believed some of the ballots “were counted at least twice.”

Later in the hearing, Georgia Tech materials expert Lisa Detter-Hoskin, Ph.D., testified that she could determine if the ovals in the ballots were filled in by machine or by hand, but would need to scan the ballots at a resolution of 600 dots per inch or higher.

She also testified that by analyzing the paper the ballots were printed on, and the envelopes they were sent in, she could determine the country where the paper was manufactured.

Amero said that he was “not comfortable have a third party scan the ballots,” and that any scanning or other inspection of the ballots would have to be overseen by county officials. The judge also said he would not allow an audit that would reveal any personal information of the voters.

Secretary of State Raffensperger, a Republican, told the New York Times that he supports the inspection of the ballots as way of restoring voter confidence and putting allegations of voter fraud to bed.

No evidence of widespread voter fraud has been presented in more than 50 lawsuits filed and the 2020 general election has been described as among the most secure in U.S. history, according to bi-partisan election officials across the country and Reuters.

The civil action cannot reverse the results of the presidential election; Democrat Joe Biden has been certified as the winner after receiving approximately 7 million more votes than incumbent Donald J. Trump.