Times Examiner Facebook Logo

Friday, October 4, 2024 - 12:08 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

VoterGA LogoATLANTA -- On Monday, the Georgia Court of Appeals reinstated VoterGA's Fulton County counterfeit ballot case without further briefs setting up a reversal of its previous lack of standing ruling against the Petitioners. The reversal comes as no surprise to the Petitioners who, for over a year, maintained they have standing, even after the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld the lower court finding on July 1, 2022.

On December 20, 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned both lower court rulings. Their decision was made unanimously without a hearing. It corroborated over a dozen state and U.S. Supreme Court precedents in Petitioners' briefs and appeal that the lower courts ignored. The decision was reached after VoterGA attorney Todd Harding filed a motion to expedite the VoterGA writ of certiorari and the Defendants responded. Co-attorney Paul Kunst then explained how Defendant Attorneys mislead the Supreme Court in claiming the court's recent decision on other standing claims had nothing to do with VoterGA Petitioners standing claims.

The Petitioners were aware they would receive a favorable Supreme Court ruling since October 25, 2022, when the Georgia Supreme Court confirmed Georgia citizens, residents and taxpayers have standing to sue government officials who violate Georgia law. At that time, the court took an extra step and confirmed its ruling extended to voters because they are community stakeholders too. Their October ruling applies to cases where individuals sued over the illegal removal of Confederate monuments and were told by a Superior Court they had no standing.

The original VoterGA Equal Protection and Due Process election claim was filed on December 23, 2020, by Attorney Harding on behalf of nine VoterGA Petitioners who allege counterfeit ballots are included in the Fulton County 2020 absentee election results. Their claim is based on sworn affidavits from senior poll managers who handled absentee ballots during the hand count audit on November 14, 2020. Petitioners also allege the infamous State Farm Arena absentee ballot processing video shows several violations of Georgia election law.

After the Petitioners separated into the Favorito et al v. Wan et al and Jeffords et al v. Fulton County case, they achieved ten months of lower court victories including an order to unseal ballots, before the cases were suddenly dismissed. A Superior Court claimed they did not have standing or a "particularized injury" immediately after Fulton County hired criminal defense attorneys at taxpayer expense to prevent Petitioners from reviewing the ballots.

VoterGA co-founder summed up the two-year struggle to identify the number of counterfeit ballots: "The mis-application of state and federal law, as well as case precedents, caused a two-year delay that prevented us from ensuring Georgia has honest, transparent elections. This double standard of justice impacted millions of Georgians and is one of the greatest voting rights violations in the state's history."

-------------------

VoterGA is a non-partisan, 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization created by a coalition of citizens working to restore election integrity in Georgia. We advocate for independently verifiable, auditable, recount capable, transparent and tamper proof elections.